Knee injury for Gritti, and Buio is also out: Italy relies on Zamboni for the Predaia finals

Lorenzo Gritti will not be at the World Cup finals scheduled for the weekend of 19–20 September in Predaia, Trentino.

This is the news of the past few hours, as announced by FISI, with the evergreen Bergamo champion, who injured his left knee during the last event held in the Czech Republic, unable to recover in time for Saturday 19's giant slalom and Sunday's slalom, thus forced to bring his 2026 season to an early close.

A real shame, because Gritti was in contention for the final podium both in the overall standings and in the two discipline rankings, while Daniele Buio, currently fourth, will also be absent. Filippo Zamboni will therefore defend the Italian team's colours at the top level: he is currently second overall behind Marcel Knapp (but the German's 163-point lead represents almost an unassailable advantage) and is also second in slalom, while the Trentino skier is third in the giant slalom standings.

The men's team will also include the world champion Bryan Agostini, Michael Bertagno, Roberto Cerentin, Mattia Facchini, Mattia Garollo, Elia Gasperini, Mark Mastalli, Nicolò Pettini and Nathan Seganti, while Gaia Cassone, Rachele Gatto, Federica Libardi, Lisa Lucchese, Nicole Mastalli and Vittoria Palano will form the women's team. In the women's overall standings, Czech skier Eliska Rejchrtova has a solid lead over Austria's Tina Hetfleisch in the most important classification.