Alpine Skiingyoung blues
Fisi Pentaphoto
Never before in this first part of the season have blue debutants been seen in the World Cup. Vinatzer (born in 1999) is a more unique than rare case, but it can be done. And now it's up to Saracco and (probably) Zazzi.
Friday 25 December 2020 8 minutes reading time
For years we have been praying that young people who are able to reinforce Italian national teams will arrive which, although very competitive with the strikers (Paris and the trio of wonders for women above all), certainly have suffered from important "holes", see technical disciplines for men ( first of all the giant) or the pink slalom which suffered for many years before finding hope in talents such as Della Mea, Rossetti and Peterlini, but clearly it is a discipline still far from the top.
In this 2020/2021 vintage something has moved, with the choices of the technicians (in some cases even forced by unpredictable situations, see the Covid that hit Razzoli and Sala) that have moved towards the nouvelle vague, on the other hand President Flavio Roda himself, after the blue debacle in the first giant men of Santa Caterina, had spoken out loud and clear about wanting to see young people with space in the team.
It takes patience, not everyone is born Vinatzer who is a ''99 class already ready (since last season) on the upper floors, but Alex's is still a marked path. The last Italian rookies in the World Cup will be Carlotta Saracco, who will take to the track for the first time in the top circuit at the Semmering slalom, Tuesday 29 December, and most likely Pietro Zazzi, called up for the fast races in Bormio starting from tests starting tomorrow.
A twenty-one year old, with a very important experience at a youth level and then held back by various problems, so much so that she also ended up outside the national cadres as she approached this season, and a 26 year old with a very special history like the Valtellina.
Before them, however, many boys were thrown into the fray as part of a youth project that Max Carca has cultivated by taking it in hand in spring 2019; the girls began, with the director Gianluca Rulfi who brought the twenty-year-old Ilaria Ghisalberti from Bergamo to Soelden for the inaugural giant, and then saw the 21-year-old Genoese Serena Viviani on the track for the two Levi slaloms.
In Alta Badia, for the giant on the Gran Risa, it was the turn of the terrible 2001 coming from the junior group - team C, namely Giovanni Franzoni and Filippo Della Vite, closely followed by a ''99 of great quality like Tobias Kastlunger, who made his debut in the Badiota slalom and did an encore the next day in Madonna di Campiglio.
Of course, some sacrifices must logically be made, see Daniele Sorio who was not called up for the giant last Sunday, with those athletes in "middle age", from the 26-year-old from Brescia to Alex Hofer, Stefano Baruffaldi (first points in the CdM at 28 years of age , in the first giant of Santa Caterina) and Hannes Zingerle, or Federico Liberatore and Tommaso Sala if we talk about slalom, which will be managed in the best possible way as they can still be important resources (just see what Hofer did in the first European Cup giants). The same goes for the women's sector with Cillara Rossi, Bertani, the same Midali who started from afar and with a great desire to find a bib in the CdM after the latest successes.
And never mind if the rookies did not bring home points, we all know how complicated it is to do it in the very first races and with those bibs, so much so that Franzoni and Della Vite will certainly participate in the two giants of Adelboden (also taking advantage of the fact that Moelgg and Maurberger, returning after their respective physical problems, prefer to concentrate on slalom).
Who could be the next talents to see at the highest level of skiing? At the women's team level, but they still have to compete in this European Cup season in speed, after the continuous upheavals in the calendar, the two ''99 class Monica Zanoner (bronze in the last world jr downhill) and Giulia Albano, from Aosta Valley who already did very well on the continental circuit last season. And watch out for 2000 Celina Haller, a slalom rider who has shown herself several times in the FIS races of this first part of the season.
Among the boys, two more 2001 like Matteo Bendotti and Tommaso Saccardi are growing visibly, but even the same ''98 Pietro Canzio could have a chance. Sooner or later, the future is finally coming.
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