Chiara Mazzel gold in paralympic alpine skiing vision impaired (visually impaired and blind), twenty years after Silvia Parente in Turin 2006which we saw at the opening ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026 at the Verona Arena among the standard-bearers of the Paralympic flag. When she arrived down with the first bib from the Milan Cortina 2026 paralympic super-giant, designated as standard-bearer for the Opening Ceremony, with Renè De Silvestro, Chiara Mazzel rejoiced up to a certain point, because in single-run races only the time of others, that of whoever comes down after, gives the measure of the value of one’s own race. It had also gone a bit like this for Federica Brignone in the equivalent Olympic race, only the descents of the others, Goggia first and foremost, could give her a precise yardstick for comparison.
Mazzel had come down close to her guide, very close to Nicola Cotti Cottini who preceded her giving her directions as happens in the visually impaired alpine skiing categories where two people win and lose because the disabled skier follows a guide who, equipped with a microphone, “traces” the route with his voice. Cotti Cottini had to go fast because Chiara was on his tail for the whole race, a sign that he was in good shape, even if he took a risk by ending up a little too close to a post on the Romerlo. In the end she seemed more worried about that mistake than aware of her great descent.
Her sky brightened immediately afterwards, when Austrian Veronika Aigner, her great rival in these Games, who had already preceded her by one step of the podium by winning the downhill race: reversed sides this time, came down. And Mameli’s anthem.
In the end Chiara, satisfied with the result, admitted: «It’s true, I’m in great shape, with Veronika Aigner, I’m always fighting for the podium. I still don’t believe it, I’m satisfied because I made so many beautiful turns, even with some small mistakes. After all, when I make a mistake I feel I have to recover and I push harder. And to think that this morning I didn’t wake up well: I had a bad headache and I almost thought about not leaving, because I had the feeling that my balance was precarious.”
I redeem within the redemption this gold which shines very brightly, because Chiara has experienced hard times several times: in 2023 when she broke her cruciate and two menisci, and, before that, when the fulminant glaucoma that hit her at 17 years old, made her lose a large part of her sight: then they had helped her to get out of it, serving as inspiration the Paralympic successes of Giacomo Bertagnolli, teammate and road mate here, bronze in the downhill and silver in Super-G just 16 cents from gold with Andrea Ravelli as guide.
Both Bertagnolli and Mazzel, who in Milan Cortina seem to inspire each other, competing on the same days, and who have other races available, explain that they don’t feel full at all and that tomorrow is another day.
