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We interviewed the Olympic champion, retracing the magical years of that "Valanga Azzurra".
Tuesday 5 November 2019 7 minutes reading time
Mario Cotelli is gone at age 76, but with the ex-national team dt, the memories of an extraordinary period for Italian skiing will not go away.
We lived them once again talking to Piero Gros, a few hours after the news of the disappearance of the man who took him to the national team, noting him at the Italian championships in Bressanone, when at 16 he was still a champion to be discovered, before winning an absolute World Cup (1973/74, bringing home the giant crystal ball), the Olympic slalom title in Innsbruck '76, and a silver (slalom in Garmisch ''78) and a bronze (giant in Sankt Moritz '' 74) worldwide, in addition to 12 victories in the maximum circuit (7 in giant, 5 in slalom).
"I arrived 9th downhill to the Absolutes, Jean Vuarnet was leaving the national team in their own hands at Cotelli, so they took me to play some FIS race - the legendary" Pierino "recalls - In '72 I broke my arm in the European Cup, so for the summer, Mario decided to send me to Australia, along with Stricker, Besson and Schmalzl, to get important points that then earned me the call-up for the first training sessions with team A. I still remember him, I went to the Stelvio to prepare myself by my side by Thoeni, which was already a myth. And from there we arrived at the beginning of the World Cup season and that day in Val d''Isère ... ".
The Critérium de la Première Neige has historically opened the maximum circuit and if there is a record that everyone remembers of Piero Gros is to have triumphed at the CdM debut, remaining in the annals as the youngest winner in history, at just 18 years and 39 days; on 8 December 1972, on the Oreiller-Killy the native of Sauze d''Oulx, just a few miles from home (he arrived in Val d''Isère directly on his car leaving home), he accomplished an undertaking to say the least extraordinary in one of the classic giants of the white circus. Started last, in the third group of merit with bib 45, Gros is second at the end of the 1st round, at 63 cents from the Norwegian Haker, who will beat him by 8 cents, with teammate Schmalzl third. Nine days later, the resounding encore in the Madonna di Campiglio slalom.
What did Cotelli tell you, that magical day in Val d''Isère?
"I started with 45, in front of me two very long runs, I was second after the first run and then the memories bring me to this big man, because Cotelli was really a colossus, that comes towards me and literally jumps on me, shouting that I had won. It was a huge thing, but I also risked suffocating when Mario threw me to the ground ... ".
Together you won a general World Cup, but the other great emotion on the single day was that of Innsbruck ...
"Certainly yes, even if the adventures have been many. Until those Olympics everything was going great, even if the presence of Stenmark was already enormous, having won the first cup after our five, just in that 1975/76 season. The slalom day at the Games was not easy for me, I did not like that weather so hard, but I did the maximum and the double with Gustav was unforgettable: at the end of the race, Mario appeared with a bottle of champagne, but shouted not to drink because there would be doping control and he feared any slightest problem. The truth is that he saw ahead in everything, from an organizational point of view he was a crazy character, he structured a national team making it unique. He was our dad. "
Was Cotelli's greatest merit precisely his managerial approach at a time like yours?
"Yes, and he was very good at building a structure and an attention around our group, because he had unique abilities from this point of view, knowing how to mix men in every kind of role. We also had clashes, God forbid, and that unforgettable period ended in errors on one side and on the other, but until '78 I myself went to the World Cup once again, even though I haven't won any more in the Cup for 3 years. (Kitzbuehel slalom, 19 January 1975, ed).
It was all so beautiful ... Mario will be missed. "
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