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The qualification system for the Beijing 2022 Games risks forcing the national team to be able to bring only 7 men, while there will be 11 women (maximum contingent) with the slalom paradox. The probable players called up and the crucial role of Matteo Marsaglia.
Sunday 2 January 2022 10 minutes reading time
A couple of more weeks and on January 16 the qualification phase (as for many other disciplines) of alpine skiing will end towards the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Italy is in a particular situation given that at present, and it appears decidedly complicated that something could change with the last races (unless some country renounces assigned quotas) between Zagreb, Adelboden, Kranjska Gora, Flachau, Altenmarkt -Zauchensee and Wengen. Basically, the female sector is moving towards the full contingent of 11 athletes who can be called up, making the most of the versatility of its champions, while the male sector, despite having obtained good results (but the discussion linked to qualification is much broader and more complicated), risks to bring only 7, with very painful renunciations linked above all to technical disciplines.
As Eurosport expert Massimiliano Ambesi summed up well in recent days, the regulation for assigning Olympic passes requires starting from a basic quota of one athlete per gender; with two athletes in the first 30 positions of any WCSL (even one athlete among the best 30 in two specialties is enough), two more shares are acquired therefore each reference country, including Italy, has at least 3 athletes guaranteed both for the female sector and for the male one.
To increase the number, reference is made to a ranking that takes into account for each athlete the best two placings in the Olympic qualification rankings of the five classic specialties (including combined, although not even one is contested in this CdM season): in this case, points are awarded starting from 4000 for the first one up to 1 for the five hundredth. According to this system, men's Italy manages to add only four passes to the list, reaching 7 thanks to Paris, Tonetti (the excellent results of the previous years in combined make the difference), Casse and Innerhofer, but to have others would need an exploit from the first athletes on the "waiting list".
We are talking about Giovanni Franzoni (26th in combined and 46th in giant, almost 300 points of this system are missing to make it), the same Moelgg (dropped to 90th place in giant), Buzzi and a Vinatzer who is 9th in slalom, but only 187 ° in giant (and the attempt to grab points between the wide doors has so far failed, even in the European Cup), but above all by Matteo Marsaglia who climbed up to 33rd place downhill, but is out of 80 in the “His” super-g, where even just an important result could have made the difference (and without the recovery of Bormio there would be no more possibilities).
If we make the assumptions of the squad for the Games, but by now they are more certainties than anything else, we see in fact that the positioning of the odds will be really negative for the Italian national team: at the women's level, there is the usual enormous abundance in speed, with only 4 places (the Olympic title of Goggia does not count, we remember it, to have an extra pass) for a descent where we will almost certainly see the Bergamo gold in PyeongChang, Elena Curtoni, Nadia Delago (twice sixth in Lake Louise) and one between Brignone, Marsaglia and Nicol Delago (8th in Lake Louise, currently his best result but the choices will be purely of a technical nature).
And for the super-g quartet it will be even more difficult to choose the dt Rulfi, with Goggia, Brignone, Curtoni and probably one between Bassino (9th and 8th in Sankt Moritz) and Marsaglia (9th in the second Swiss appointment), with the Delago sisters theoretically out of the game. Seven athletes who will also contribute to forming the giant team, given that the Bassino-Brignone-Goggia-Curtoni quartet could change only with the inclusion, for example, of Roberta Melesi who has just returned from a good race in Lienz and who will practically be played. all in Maribor. If the 25-year-old from Lecco were to receive the Olympic call-up, there would still be 3 more passes to use, in fact all for the slalom where, without Martina Peterlini, there is a risk of having to bring athletes without points obtained in this CdM season. We are talking about Della Mea, Rossetti, Gulli and the other specialists who will try to get placings among the 30 in the last three races divided between Zagreb, Maribor and Flachau; Italy could also give up a couple of places available, of course, perhaps proposing both Brignone and Bassino between the narrow poles, while in combination it is likely that we will go towards a quartet with Brignone, Bassino, Curtoni and Goggia (the Bergamo gave up this race in PyeongChang after gold downhill).
The paradox, one of many, is that the men's technical disciplines risk not even reaching four Italian athletes per race, despite having also obtained placings among the top 15 in this CdM season. Let's go in order: Paris, Innerhofer, Casse and Marsaglia are practically certain for descent and super-g, with Lele Buzzi who will have to perform a miracle after his injury and Guglielmo Bosca who would need a great placement in Wengen.
Three bibs remain, in fact already on the shoulders of Luca De Aliprandini, Alex Vinatzer and Giuliano Razzoli (9th and 7th in the first two slalom), unless someone between Sala, Maurberger, Gross and Moelgg, in the first slalom of 2022 does much better than the 2010 Olympic champion. Here, the two veterans, "Sabo" and "Manni", take a big risk like the same Tommaso Sala and Simon Maurberger, despite the latter having done very well with the Brianza twice 12th between Val d '' Isère and Campiglio and the boy from Valle Aurina 10th on the night of the 3Tre.
And outside there would also be Filippo Della Vite and Giovanni Borsotti for the giant, but also the combinatist Riccardo Tonetti (only Inner and Paris, or maybe even Casse and Marsaglia, competing in that discipline?), With the composition of the quartets that would practically become impossible with these 7 places available and which, we repeat, will hardly be more.
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