Winter Olympics, Goggia on the podium after the injury in Cortina, Delago third
BEIJING. The liberating scream, after crossing the finish line, releases the tension. He bends over, has sticks in his armpits and kisses the camera. For a few minutes Sofia Goggia caresses the idea of gold, which then slips away for only 16 cents. A grimace of disappointment, but then emerges, overbearing, the joy for an extraordinary result 23 days after the very serious knee injury: “an incredible medal, I gave everything I could,” she says hotly. “It is a silver medal of immeasurable value that almost tastes of platinum”, explained the skier from Bergamo like a river in flood, euphoric for a miracle accomplished in downhill on the Olympic track of Yanqing.
Because it was not at all obvious that he could participate in the Beijing 2002 Games, after the cursed super-G in Cortina on 23 January. Nobody would have bet a cent on her, except her, of course. After speaking to the medical staff she was focused on “working towards recovery. I had to go, I had to be there, I told myself. The Olympic Games are dreams that come true and I wanted to be there at all costs. It didn’t matter to finish first, second or tenth. I wanted to be there ».
The physician of Fisi, Andrea Panzeri, is euphoric (“it was great) and the technical director, Gianluca Rulfi shouted at the” miracle of Sofia “.
La Goggia missed the gold encore of PyeongChang 2018 by a whisker, yielding only in the fifth fraction of the track. The blue had an advantage of 18 cents over Swiss Corinne Suter at the last split time, capable of reversing the situation and crossing the finish line with the final time of 1: 31.87, trailing her by 16 cents. «She ate Me in the last stretch. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe the wind, maybe the fluidity after this injury. When I have to use my knees and my aerodynamic position I lack a bit of sensitivity because until the other day I could not even stay in egg shape. Suter won, I can only congratulate you ».
The blue downhill skier, leader of the specialty world cup, led the pink avalanche, as Nadia Delago took her first career podium at 24, a bronze “in the most important race of my life”. Never had two Italians been on the Olympic podium of the descent,