Double Olympic champion Federica Brignone made the seemingly impossible possible with two gold medals at the Olympic Games. After almost a year out due to injury, the Italian raced to gold in her home game in the Super-G and the giant slalom. Now she is ending the season early.
“I’ve asked a lot of my body in the last few months”said the 35-year-old Italian, who will miss the last World Cup races. Whether she will return to the big stage next winter was left too open. Most recently, she had openly thought about resigning, citing the damage to her body following a serious injury. “If things don’t get better, you won’t see me again next year”she said.
Brignone suffered a very serious knee injury at the beginning of April 2025 and was worried about taking part in the Olympics for months. Ultimately, she tortured herself so much in rehab that it was not only enough to compete in the Dolomites, but even to achieve a double triumph.
Brignone: “Every day is a fight”
But this came at a price, as Brignone revealed in interviews. “I would trade both OIympia medals to go back in time and not suffer this injury“, she told the “Repubblica”. Brignone assumes that she will never fully recover from the serious injury – currently she has to limp all day after going skiing in the morning. “I had completely destroyed my leg and my knee, every day is a battle. My shin is no longer aligned properly, it has a hole.”
I would trade both OIympia medals to go back in time and not suffer this injury.
At the Italian championships in spring 2025 – a rather insignificant race after the World Cup season – Brignone scored a goal and suffered multiple injuries in his knee and lower leg. “I couldn’t bend my leg for two months afterwards, and I still can’t play tennis today.”she described. When asked whether the joint would ever be the same again, she replied: “That’s impossible.”
Comeback only shortly before the Olympics
Her golden comeback at the Olympics also seemed impossible. It was only 72 days before the opening of the Winter Games that Brignone was back on skis and completed easy downhill runs in Cervinia. In mid-January she announced her comeback for the World Cup at Kronplatz and made people sit up and take notice with sixth place in the giant slalom, her first race in nine months.
At the Olympic Games, she was one of the flag bearers at the opening ceremony. Even the boldest optimists didn’t believe that she would end up being a face of the Games with two gold medals. Brignone risked everything and gained a lot, but the pain remained and is now forcing the Italian ski star to end the season early.
