At the bottom of the Lake Louise slope, Sofia Goggia can scream her joy this Sunday, December 5: the 29-year-old Italian skier has just won her third race in three days of competition on the Canadian slopes. On Friday and Saturday, it is downhill, her great specialty, that she has imposed herself. That Sunday, Sofia Goggia surprises by winning the Super-G. “Last season I couldn’t get into Super-G mode. So today is my best victory. I found my sensations “, she explains in the wake of her hat-trick in Canada.
After the hat-trick at Lake Louise in early December, Sofia Goggia followed with a second place and a sixth place in the Super-G of Saint-Moritz (Switzerland). On Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 December, she will be the big favorite in downhill and Super-G during the World Cup round in Val-d’Isère (Thursday and Friday, she finished first and second in training ). “She’s the girl in great shape from the start of the season. There is her and the others ”, confirms Carole Montillet, Olympic downhill champion in 2002.
Leader of the downhill and Super-G classifications, Sofia Goggia hopes to confirm these good feelings and this “Greater regularity”, about which Marco Viale, his ex-trainer from 2012 to 2018, speaks. “She had already done great races in her career, but in the process, she often had a lot of mistakes”, underlines the one who now works within the staff of the France team.
“She unplugs her brain”
This status of “queen of speed” which sticks to her in the combination, Sofia Goggia surely owes it to her hothead temperament. A very committed ski, always at the limit. “It feels like she’s unplugging her brain when she’s on the track. She practices a very strong ski, always with extreme movements ”, describes the Frenchwoman Romane Miradoli, who has rubbed shoulders with the Italian for nearly ten years on the circuit.
“She doesn’t think about the risks. Difficult places on a track, she sees them as where you have to make a difference ”, confirms Marco Viale, who sees what makes her “A skier different from the others”.
Who if not @goggiasofia our #weeklywarrior ? #fisalpine https://t.co/9LFWsQWAX0
This style allowed the Italian to twice win the small globe of the downhill (2018, 2021), but also the Olympic title of the specialty, in Pyeongchang, in 2018. This daredevil attitude will also have earned her, however. many injuries. The most recent: a broken tibia in January.
Not enough to bring him down. She always knew how to find her best level. “She has great self-confidence. As soon as she gets hurt, she knows she will come back even stronger “, describes Marco Viale.
The Beijing Games in the sights
“Convinced very early on that she could become the best in the world”, Sofia Goggia is even more so since her title in South Korea. “She is playing a game”, assures Romane Miradoli. That of “I am an Olympic champion”, continues the Frenchwoman.
Sofia Goggia has fun on social networks, where she has nearly twice as many subscribers as Federica Brignone, Elena Curtoni or Marta Bassino, who with her form the revival of Italian skiing. “Sofia is a real character, confirms Marco Viale. But above all, she is a huge hard worker. “
Besides earning points in the giant slalom, Sofia Goggia could take advantage of the higher number of sprint races this season to aim for the big crystal globe. If she manages to tame the Val-d’Isère track and win on Saturday, she could take first place in the general classification, all specialties combined, ahead of the American Mikaela Shiffrin.
“I’m not focusing on that”, she said in an interview with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), at the beginning of December. Marco Viale believes in it: “She’s more mature!” “ “She has gained experience, she knows that she does not need to take insane risks”, continues Carole Montillet.
Less “crazy” on her skis, Sofia Goggia also has another goal: the Beijing Olympics. The date of February 15, the day of the descent, is checked in his calendar. If successful, she could equal the German Katja Seizinger, who had chained two Olympic titles in the discipline (1994, 1998).
At the 2018 Olympics, Sofia Goggia won ahead of American Lindsey Vonn (3e), ex-queen of speed. Her three victories in three days at Lake Louise at the beginning of December, places her at the height of the same Lindsey Vonn and Katja Seizinger, who were the only ones to have achieved such a hat-trick before her. Two big names in the discipline, to which that of Goggia is now attached.