Sestriere Giant Slalom starts tomorrow

International Federation at the side of the Committee, the Italian girls ready to excite. Tomorrow at the start of the first manche at 10.30 a.m., live on Rai

An heavy snowfall did not stop Sestriere: in the early hours of the day the snow was not missing, with the entire Committee and partners lined up to face the situation in the best possible way, with over 100 people involved on the piste. From the village to the parterre, right down to the piste in all its sections: the staff, the FIS, Infront Sports & Media, technical partners, the lift operators, the armed forces groups, the ski schools and many others, all made themselves available to restore, set up, clean and allow the organisation to complete the work to host the giant slalom scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 10 December, and the slalom on Sunday 11 December.

Work that was recognised by the International Federation at the team’s captains meeting, a technical meeting held in the late afternoon before each World Cup race: “Since this morning before sunrise, we have been working to guarantee the two races of the weekend. The track staff is still on the Kandahar G.A. Agnelli working on wetting two sections: the slope base was excellent and we are optimistic about the final result,” commented Peter Gerdol, FIS Chief Race Director World Cup Women.

While the organisational machine was busy in this challenge, the athletes were not outdone either, training both on the track and indoors. The Kandahar G.A. Agnelli as they know, in fact, is not a slope to be underestimated as Marta Bassino of the Italian team explains “I feel good, I am skiing well, I am very confident and I hope to entertain myself and the public that will finally be numerous. The slope has an initial wall followed by a flat and then the slope starts again, which leads to a junction, where you have to maintain the right speed to get to the finish line, but to make the difference you have to ski the right way”.

The public will be huge, with 20,000 people expected over the two days. Many will be waiting at the finish line for all athletes, ready to give and experience emotions. As Federica Brignone “I am working to find my feeling on skis again, to attack instead of defend, I will do everything to achieve positive feelings.

It was a strange start of season because of the cancellations, but it can happen in our sport, they had added so many races to the programme but in the end we did not do a single one. From now the calendar is full, there will be opportunities to move up in level and confidence, I have wonderful memories at Sestriere, three years ago it was a crazy race, I hope to relive some good emotions”.

Tomorrow, Saturday 10 December, at 10.30 a.m. the first run and at 1.30 p.m. the second run of the Sestriere Giant Slalom, with Lara Gut-Behrami, Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vhlova, Marta Bassino, Tessa Worley, Federica Brignone, and Sara Hector currently favourites. The discipline also suits Sofia Goggia: “I came from an absolutely positive Canadian trip, I skipped the giant slalom in Killington because I preferred to prepare Lake Louise in the best possible way and in the end it was the right decision. The giant slalom is a discipline that allows me to maintain a high technical level, even with speed, and that is what I need. It’s about creating speed in technical stability, so the giant slalom will be very important and I feel I have the qualities to achieve good placings, because even in the last two years, where I did not achieve great results in the speciality, I felt I had a good level”.

The event will be broadcast live globally on numerous televisions, including for Italy Rai 2 (from 10.15 a.m. live), Eurosport and Discovery+.