A Global Cortina
Every sport has symbolic places which exude history, tradition and prestige. In alpine skiing, one of these places is without a shadow of a doubt the Olympia delle Tofane slope; the fact that it is located in Cortina d'Ampezzo should suffice, after all we are talking about a resort that is practically a temple for winter sports. It was built for the unforgettable Winter Olympic Games of 1956, making it a piece of Italian - and not just sporting - history. It is a difficult, risky, fast but also a tricky slope, and those who tackle it know that anything can happen here.
It is also because of all this timeless charm that Pirelli, a company historically linked to the world of winter sports, has returned to sponsor certain stages of the Alpine Ski World Cup, including the women's event that took place on the Pearl of the Dolomites between 26th and 28th January 2024. The weekend in Cortina was long and intense, marked by a sequence of dramatic turns of events and changes in scenery. This is inevitable when the weather is unstable, when the wind sweeps the slopes: the first event scheduled for Friday, the downhill competition, was interrupted precisely because of the high-force, low-temperature winds. Nevertheless, the race was truly exciting: after Mikaela Shiffrin fell (she was rescued by helicopter), Federica Brignone also took a tumble. These were two of the most eagerly awaited stars in Cortina. In the end, the Austrian Stephanie Venier overtook the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami by 39 hundredths of a second. At the 2021 World Championships, Gut-Behrami won two gold medals (Giant and Super-G) and one bronze medal (Downhill) in the same Dolomitic location. In third place came the Italian Sofia Goggia, the Canadian Valerie Grenier and the Austrian Christina Agger, all together with the same time and just 71 hundredths of a second behind the winner.
Another downhill event was held on Saturday morning: Goggia took the lead of the competition thanks to a practically perfect second intermediate, but then the pace down the slope sped up due to the wind coming back. After two interruptions, the Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel was able to ski down much better snow, and so she arrived 44 hundredths of a second ahead of Goggia; shortly after the American Jacqueline Wiles was able to overtake the Italian champion, forcing her down to third place again. "My technique was not impeccable, I didn't ski as well as I wanted to as the wind kept shifting me," said Goggia in a post-race interview given to RAI microphones. “But I can deem myself satisfied: it had been a long time since I had been able to be so aggressive downhill.”
Last but not least, the Super-G took place on Sunday: the Austrian Hütter was forced out of the course and this knocked her out of the leading chair, which was claimed by the winner Gut-Behrami; in second place, just 21 hundredths of a second behind, came Stephanie Venier; third place went to the French Romane Miradoli, just 41 hundredths of a second from the winning time. This meant there was no room on the podium for the Italian skiers, obviously the most eagerly awaited by the public who had flocked to Cortina: Goggia came fifth, Marta Bassino sixth, Brignone ninth, and then all the others. The Canadian Valerie Grenier took a bad fall and suffered a shoulder injury that will probably keep her off the snow for the rest of the season.
All in all, those who climbed up to Cortina d'Ampezzo for the weekend had no way of getting bored. It is a classic of the Alpine Ski World Cup, which has a deep and indissoluble bond with Cortina: the downhill on Friday in fact marked the historic goal of the 100 world championship competitions held on the Olympia delle Tofane. An event in which Pirelli wanted to star in, as the event sponsor. It is no coincidence - it cannot be: the industrial approach of the Pirelli brand is perfectly in keeping with that of the great skiing champions, who are always in pursuit of near-perfect performance levels. All this without ever forgetting about comfort, stability and safety, which are essential for those who compete but also for those who want to climb the mountains in their car. So, everything comes from the search for ever higher performance, from technological innovation, from the need to have equipment that is suitable for winter, to wear skis or even fit tyres that are able to handle and overcome unforeseen challenges. On the slopes, on the streets, everywhere.
