Alpine skiing, Carca: “From Paris to De Aliprandini, the big names were missing. Hunger? There is, but we have to be realistic”

The Ski World Cup is ready to get back to life with the double slalom on January 4, the men in Garmisch and the women in Zagreb. Speaking of the Azzurri, it’s up to Max Carca, once again technical director of the men’s team, to take stock of the negative moment, at least in terms of results.

The first part of the season ended with only one podium, that of Mattia Casse in the second descent of Val Gardena. What balance can be made?

“It’s difficult to take stock, we’re in the middle of a transition phase, I myself have been a manager for five months, I know the situation well, I was hoping that the expert athletes would act as an umbrella for the young people who are growing up, but that wasn’t the case “.

One case above all, that of Dominik Paris.

“We have to be realistic, who has achieved results in speed in the last two years? There was only Domme. Now there is Casse who is moving forward and it is a positive thing, but we miss Paris. We all know it, he has lost confidence with the crash in Canada, from there he’s trying to make some changes to his set-up every day, but when you lose confidence it’s tough”.

We were all waiting for him at the appointment in Bormio, on “his” Stelvio. Instead he went badly. Why?

“I saw him skiing in Argentina, he didn’t ski like he does now. In Soelden he almost qualified in giant slalom, in Lake Louise he was fighting for the podium until he lost his ski… From that moment on there is was the blackout, he is an athlete who has fallen very little, he has lost confidence and then America, Val Gardena, are not ideal snow for him. All these things together have made him lose confidence and now the staff is working to try to put him in a position to do it one piece at a time. He was in Bormio last week, he skied better than shown in the downhill and in super-G. But training is one thing, and it wasn’t in the extreme conditions that they met at the end of the year: Feuz did some reconnaissance and didn’t start, Meyer decided to stop because this track has really put everyone to the test these days”.

So, beyond the 10th place in Bormio, could he be recovering?

“Now he wants to reset everything and do it one piece at a time. We’re going to Wengen, we’re going to Kitz, he’s a champion, someone who has 21 victories and 42 podiums in the World Cup, he’s a skiing legend, we have to respect this moment of his He’s not a kid you take by the collar…”

And the other blues? At De Aliprandini and Vinatzer there was no shortage of disappointments…

“We know it’s a difficult moment. We’re fighting, I’m confident for the future. De Aliprandini went out in three out of 4 giants, Innerhofer too, he had given some signals in training, he struggled in the match for now. Vinatzer did it two fast races and two on the forks. We chose to let him do the double discipline, in the European cup he started with the 50 and has already made a podium in the giant. Now in January there are six important slaloms, we’ll talk about them after these tests”.

Are young people really growing up?

We have guys from 2001, Della Vite and Franzoni… Giovanni fell in America, otherwise who knows maybe he was already there with the best. Instead you take a sting like that and it takes time to start again. Kastlunger achieved that result in Val d’Isere, he is also skiing well in the European cup. We are working to bring these kids from 20 to 23-24 years old with the two disciplines to be stable on skis and to be able to compete in every race, not to have the anxiety that if they make a mistake…”

We need a Goggia that drags everyone along with its determination.

” You need hunger, of course, but you also need to understand your level. Last season we had Paris 4th in the world, De Aliprandini 7th, then Vinatzer and Sala 14th and 15th. This year we miss Paris and Aliprandini, while Casse has taken a step forward. Let’s wait for the end of January to understand if Vinatzer is missing or not, I see him skiing well, I’d be more worried if he had finished 15th or 20th. And then he changed the materials, this also affects. We have to look to 2025-26, we have to be realistic”.

Will Paris be there next season?

“I can’t answer now.”