He looks younger than 18 Flora Tabanelli, but that girl-next-door look, soap and water and kind smile, doesn’t make courage an extreme sport which makes her one of the stars of Freestyle big air, that strange, vaguely circus-like discipline that combines alpine skiing and artistic gymnastics: it involves jumping on fairly short skis up a ramp with a tooth, being projected twenty-five meters into the air and performing evolutions there, rotating on the axes of the body, skis on your feet, and obviously landing on your feet. The sport is based on judgement, with methods comparable to those of gymnastics and diving: three runs, three jumps are done and the best two are kept good, but the rotations need to be varied.
Flora Tabanelli started by following her older brother Miro, also at the Games, with whom she now lives and competes in Val di Fiemme, who built “jumps” outside their parents’ refuge. Originally from the Modena Apennines, the two grew up sportingly in Corno alle Scala, a place known for being the skiing birthplace of Alberto Tomba.
On the evening of February 16, while the Olympic world was distracted by figure skating, artistic pair, Flora won a very heavy bronze, with two jumps that were worth a gold score, a pity that one of the two highest scores was discarded due to the limits imposed by the variety of rotation.
A little-known sport in our latitudes and young, practiced by kids with the aptitude of tightrope walkers, big air has in Flora an absolute champion who exploded last season with titles worth a career: general freestyle World Cup, the big air World Cup, the big air X-Games in Aspen and the big air World Championships in Engadine.
But What makes this medal at the home Olympics special is a detail that connects her determination with that of Federica Brignone: Flora has been competing for months with a broken cruciate ligament, in a discipline that puts enormous strain on her knees. in landing cushioning. Arriving at the height of the season, the injury risked compromising participation in the Games, which is why conservative treatment was chosen, in the hope that it would be enough to participate.
This is why Flora arrived at the Games “covered” with no competition in her legs and many unknowns: the solidity of a veteran with which she faced the competition, drawing evolutions in the air as she does with pencils at the art institute, despite the precarious conditions, makes her medal very bright. Now surgery awaits him to fix his knee: his mind is already on next season.
