“Hit the barrel.” In the headset, Andrea Ravelli beats the pace to Giacomo Bertagnolli and pilots him between the slalom poles until the triumph in the super-combined Vision Impaired (athletes with visual disabilities) on the snows of Yanquing, completing the comeback after the super-G heat closed in third place . “It’s bullshit, a little taken from the dialect, a little invented that we talk to each other these days and that pushes him to go faster,” explains the thirty-year-old guide from Brescia.
We also asked the Fanchini sisters about this curious formula and no other skier in those parts had ever heard it, but it worked perfectly yesterday, because she gave the first gold to the Italian delegation at the Beijing Paralympics, 24 hours after the same tandem had unlocked the medal table with the silver in super-G. It could only be the standard-bearer of the Opening Ceremony to play the Mameli Anthem today, when the tandem of the Fiamme Gialle will receive the medals on the day of rest before embarking on the last two technical tests. Speaking of the Guardia di Finanza, Jack was drafted on the eve of the Chinese trip and that was his first success: «It’s a nice goal that makes the Paralympic athletes on the same level as the able-bodied also from an economic point of view. After six years, skiing will be my job, not just a passion anymore ». Then came the two medals in two days, which were added to the four he had won in PyeongChang in 2018, together with Fabrizio Casal. After the podium poker at the South Korean Games, the paths of the two had separated, as often happens in sports, but the good story was that Fabrizio was one of the first to want to take a picture with Jack after yesterday’s gold because he is also in Yanqing, ready to lead the rookie Chiara Mazzel.
From a couple, two were born, both very close-knit. Giacomo and Andrea were even born on the same day (January 18), but the Lombard is keen to point out that he is a few years older than the Trentino class of 1999, which is already a monument of Paralympic Alpine skiing and beyond. “Receiving Arianna Fontana’s compliments made me very happy,” adds Bertagnolli after the message from the biolympic. After the tears for the gold won in the only race in which he missed the podium in South Korea, Giacomo is ready to make the fans dream again and to drag his friend Andrea with him to the podium, who thought he had finished with the professional skiing in 2016 and, instead, here he is on the top step at the Games. –
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