If sporting success had a measurement tool, it would be off the charts right now: Federica Brignone who, after the Super-G, wins the giant slalom in the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympicswould already be in history without the 10 months that passed after the very serious injury last April. Two golds in the same edition in alpine skiing have the only precedent of Alberto Tomba. But this is another galaxy, we are outside of Euclidean geometry: this is proven by the bow of the opponents who have just been beaten, the hugs of the others immediately afterwards. It doesn’t hurt if someone competing in another universe beats you.
The control that Federica Brignone has spoken about in recent days can be seen from the imaginary tracks on which her skis move without ever skidding, without raising a wisp of snow, as if skiing were the most natural thing in the world, which it is not and cannot be in the pain that only two days ago he described as a constant in his life for the last 10 months.
It certainly has been so in other moments of life, it was so in the last season, the best ever experienced in the World Cup, and it is as if the unconscious memory of the body found the automatisms on skis, in spite of everything, of the instinct of self-preservation, of the most human fear.
Federica says that she felt too calm, that she didn’t even understand that she was ahead of everyone, she arrives almost dazed. Nobody has words, not even her. It’s almost endearing as she talks about enjoying the skiing, without weight, as someone who had already demonstrated everything beyond what was required couldn’t have any weight, and perhaps she really skied as if it wasn’t the Olympics, as if there wasn’t something to win, but only the pleasure of going down in the snow, of hearing the characteristic noise of the skis, the sense of freedom that only skis give, especially to those who thought they could no longer experience it.
