Laura Pirovano takes revenge all at once, on skiing and on life: with the third victory in her career she wins the 2026 Downhill World Cup by taking it on the snow, with willpower having demonstrated that she knows how to handle the pressure, in an exceptional finale. In a way that no myth, no fable, no fairy tale could have imagined. Life took care of it and when it wants it can have more imagination than any narrator.
For Laura Pirovano, from Trentino from Spezzo, born in 1997, life and skiing, up to now, have above all taken. An infinite number of podiums missed in the World Cup, in which he made his debut in 2015: 29 placings among the best 10, of which 11 among the best 15 and never a podium.
The modern version of the torture of Tantalus, condemned in Greek myth to thirst and eternal hunger in Hades despite being immersed in fresh water and with fruit trees apparently close at hand but impossible to reach. The Olympians applied it to alpine skiing, a sport that is more capricious than them due to its variables (and it takes that), targeting this very tenacious skier, who, unlike Tantalus, did not try to equate herself with the gods but only to do her job: try to win the important things.
It went like this for over ten years, then on 6 March 2026 the Olympians overturned their whims, allowing her to win her first World Cup race on the VolatA of the San Pellegrino pass in Val di Fassa, in downhill, by just one hundredth ahead of the German Emma Aicher, a young all-rounder who everyone recognizes as the future of women’s alpine skiing. A descent that shouldn’t have happened, recovery of the canceled test in Crans Montana. «I win by a penny and I’m sorry», Laura had said that day with her always sunny face, «but it’s gone wrong many times, today I want to enjoy it».
The swallow that made spring for a penny just flew back over Laura’s head, Lolli for everyone, for the same single penny the next day too, a situation that she was the first to define as surreal: «It’s even more incredible than yesterday: I can’t realize it. It’s all surreal. Even the gap of a cent, twice in a row, I think repays me for all the times that I have had cents against me. My regularity has finally paid off and it’s wonderful. When I saw the green light I thought it was a joke, and even now I can’t believe it. There are two girls who did the race practically like me, because the gap of 1 and 5 hundredths means practically nothing. I knew I was close to the best, but I didn’t think of two days like these.”
But two races won like this were not a single fact, because two victories mean 200 points, which put Laura Pirovano in the running for the Downhill Cup right up to the final. She started skiing at three years old, many injuries interrupted her career but never stopped her. Versatile in approach, he loves speed on skis, but also the sea which he frequents for other thrilling sports such as freediving and surfing.
The last 100 points arrived today. Life and skiing have finally given her back, all at once. On the same day that also saw the revenge of Dominik Paris who returned to victory in the downhill, in Lillehammer, a place that has always brought luck to Italy.
