When he won Grenoble’s Olympic gold in 1968, his very personal cultural revolution, Franco Nones had a foreigner’s face, but on the contrary compared to the masterpiece George Moustaki: the eyes clear how the sea had them in Nordici for the first time on the lowest steps of the podium of the 30 kilometers of cross -country skiing, which had so far been the courtyard of the Scandinavian house, never below that peninsula nobody had dared so much.
A little caricatured portraits who exaggerated small and black Italians came out in the northern newspapers and Swedes. In reality they knew him and admired him because he often trained there and because he had conquered the heart of a Swedish woman, his wife Ingner Barneholm, who followed him in Castello in Val di Fiemme, where they still live.
From the CSI, which today celebrates 80 years, to the Olympic gold, in Milan Cortina arrival that will bring him as almost a tribute to the games at home, it was a long journey: fast years as fast as days, which do not seem to have left significant signs about his eternal youth.
Is it true that he started as a child doing the races against the bicycle train?
«Yes, the road was still a dirt road, in the morning I went to the age of 13 to work in sawmill: 20 kilometers downhill. On the way back I was waiting for the mountain that the hood whistled and I left by bicycle and nine times out of ten I arrived here at the Castle station before the train. Logically the train made the expected stops … but I almost always arrived before ». Was the transition to skiing a choice or a climate necessity? “Down in the lower, between Verona and Trento they went by bicycle all year round, here with the snow I could not go for a lot months, I had disadvantaged compared to those of the plain, it was the climate of up here to direct me to cross -country skiing”.
How did the Nordics took it when an Italian blew the Olympic gold?
“I think I had been a surprise but up to a certain point, I had already done the 1964 Olympics and I had come tenth, it meant that I had already beaten half of the Scandinavians because Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, with four competitors for nation, brought 16 athletes in all. At the Oslo 1966 championships I had already won the bronze in relay with Italy and then I arrived sixth on the 30 km. The Scandinavians then knew that I could win or not win but that I was one of the best, I do not say that they were waiting for him, however, they knew me more than the non -professionals in Italy knew me “.
How did you meet the CSI with which she started?
“Being enrolled in a company like CSI was the only way to begin to compete between small countries and between municipalities at the beginning. I believe that more than 90% of mountain boys then left under the flag of the Italian sports center. The fact that it was Catholic liked to my family who was very practicing, my father, however, liked much less that I and me the younger brother we lost the mass for the races, did not go really down we had to always leave hidden, helped with the mother who understood us a little more ».
We know that Franco Nones has not lost faith, nor stopped practicing. When did your father made peace with your races?
«Not immediately when I won the first Italian championship with the CSI, but when I was able to enlist on Guardia di Finanza and that was a real job, and there was a qualitative leap not only because I had the salary of a financier, but also because I had it to train with the sports group and my character has always been competitive, but I would say that especially my coaches understood that my possibilities were quite high, because I immediately started to compete in the categories in the categories. I was always among the first. Because from the fact that I started competing I have always been among the first in each category. My body held well the effort and intensity of work that others perhaps could not support ».
What was the most important quality, resistance or more?
«To have resistance you must also have the mentality that serves to endure the effort because if you have the qualities and do not take advantage of them because you lack will, grit pride to do better than others, you don’t get there even if you have quality does not arrive. Then for what I remember the appetite comes eating: if you win in a category then you want to challenge you in the upper one at least I was done like this ».
What do you remember from that day of Grenoble you?
«Good memories, because the day was perfect, the climate and the snow were excellent and everything went in the right direction, even if it was not equally obvious to arrive on the first step of the Olympic podium in the middle of the greats of that time: according to a Norwegian, a Finnish third, never before me a non -Scandinavian had arrived. At that moment he moved all over Italy because even those who until then did not follow the cross -country skiing after they wanted to highlight themselves. “
The cross -country skiing has long been a slightly visible discipline even if it has given Italy to Italy even after great satisfactions, did it suffer from it?
“Not particularly, I am aware that as a sport cannot have the visibility of football and athletics that everyone can practice, because a ball or a pair of shoes are enough, the bottom requires mountains, snow, equipment, you have to find a set of things that climate change will make even more difficult”.
After her, Italy won very important medals by beating the favorite Norway in the 4×10 relay to Lillehammer and Turin, to say only the most sensational successes. Do you have the feeling of having opened the way?
“There is no doubt that my victory opened a little doors to the whole world, while before they were open only for Scandinavia: afterwards the Americans arrived, and other nations, it was a bit like if a cap had taken place, if my success had triggered the belief that it was not so impossible to find a passage. At the beginning it was also Bulffo, Franco None ended up in all the Nordic newspapers and in Italy he also spoke of me the newspaper of the fishermen of Catania. In Sweden they wrote: “The Italian bomb broke out”, but I am convinced that they were not so surprised to see me coming, I think they had already measured me a little, because it is true that on the podium three but there are perhaps at least ten that could get there “.
How much has the cross -country skiing changed over the years?
«A lot, the discrimination was in the early seventies, because before the skis were only of wood and after instead the sunny materials and carbon fibers arrived, which flow into the snow in a completely different way and more favorable than the wood. Not only did the wooden skiing break often, and then the slopes were not beaten we beat them with the passage of skis, just another world ».
We are approaching a winter Olympics, will you have it at home, how will you live it?
«Trentino is involved with the cross -country skiing, 33 medals out of 100 will be distributed right here in Val di Fiemme. I think this is also a success that has roots in Grenoble: it has been after that moment that this valley is one of the main centers in the world for cross -country skiing. After I had won the Marcialonga, the classic of our house, the Topolino Trophy was born, which involved the children, three world championships were organized in Val di Fiemme, and now the Olympics “.
How will Milan Cortina participate?
“I asked for not having official assignments in the organization, but they know that if I need I am always present, it is true I have a certain age, but thank God I have an iron health, I go every day to walk and work I still like it, but it is right that young people have their space”. How would a child convince under cross -skiing? “I would like to convince all the children to do whatever sport is because sport is physical activity, it is friendship, it is loved: teaches to be corrected in life, not to cheat, after which the choice of sport depends on many things also on where one lives”.
Do you get more effort on a cross -country trail or in sawnish?
“Well, I would say that it all depends on the commitment that one puts us, it is difficult in both cases, and in one case and in the other, a lot depends on how good he violates himself: it is valid with skis and is valid in sawmill and in any job: whoever wants to do well must put commitment to us”.
