Federica Brignone, 35 years old, alpine skiing, Amos Mosaner, 30, curling; Arianna Fontana, 35, short track, Federico Pellegrino, 35, cross-country skiing. These are the four names chosen as standard bearers for Milano Cortina 2026. Two parades in Milan, two in Cortina, is the novelty of the first widespread Winter Olympics in history.
Four faces, four names, simply perfect. Not only because they mix ice and snow with perfect balance, because they combine city and mountain, peaks and valley bottoms, disciplines in the spotlight and sports in the shadows, but because, for the sporting history they have, which our friend and colleague Gian Paolo Ormezzano would have defined as “thick”.
Very appropriate adjective: “thick” is more than “long”, and more than “rich”, it is a combination of the two things, he says of the age experience, everyone has it, but also of the depth of the career behind him.
Federica Brignone has won more than any other woman in the history of alpine skiing, but her presence here has a value greater than the medal count: it speaks of determination, of fatigue, of pain, of traits of desperation which she has faced in the last 260 days, since she suffered, at the end of last season fresh from three Crystal Cups including the general one, a multiple and dramatic injury that risked leaving her tracks in pieces. The next two months will be of very intense work to find the best form, but it is what she did on the track or beyond the track that has made her honor the flag she will carry even beyond what is required.
TOrianna Fontana on the ice of the Palavela in Turin 2006, where she already won bronze in the relay, was a mascot. He is still here, despite a sport that is a real melee, and in the midst of it he has put in enough medals to compete with the parade on June 2nd, if necessary demonstrating to the world that to win a lot you need character, at the risk of being told that he has a difficult character.
Amos Mosaner, despite having European and world medals behind him, was almost nobody to most when he won gold in curling in Beijing 2022 paired with the very young Stefania Constantini, but only because certain sports are only leap years for the general public.
But to get there Mosaner worked in the shadow of a discipline that Italy discovered in Turin 2006, welcoming it with passion, and watching with fascination and curiosity a game of ballistics on the ice of stone knobs and broomsticks. A sport, which despite its appearance requires a lot of athletic skills and a very solid mind, but which sinks into the shadows to re-emerge every leap year coinciding with the Games. Mosaner not only helped us get to know this world, but was able to handle the pressure that comes with being in the spotlight only in the Olympic years. it is the difficulty that adds to the sometimes misunderstood difficulty of the history of this sport.
Federico Pellegrino, who has announced his retirement for 2026, has been a very solid certainty in world cross-country skiing for a decade, a discipline that suffers more than any other from the competition of the fiefdoms of the Great North.
With a predilection for sprinting and free technique, Pelligrino has two Olympic silver medals in the sprint in both techniques (2018 and 2022), seven world medals and two World Cups, not to mention the rest and the interesting thing is that he has grown over time, giving his best in his mature seasons.
This background thickness makes the choice that fell on them as standard bearers perfect, not only because the flag is an important recognition for those who have given so much, but because only to those who have already given so much, to those who already have gold medals behind them, can it have the effect of an extra incentive without overwhelming. These four phenomena will be able to enjoy the ceremony and the honor received knowing that they will give more from the next day in the race, it will be their gift to us. Not a debt for them aggravated by a premature flag.
We can be sure that the next day they will all go into the race with 100% energy and their hearts not burdened by the weight of having to honor that flag at all costs, simply because they have already done it by getting there.
