The freestyle success of the Tabanelli phenomenon

Fabulous Flora. Italian freestyle was waiting for Silvia Bertagna to win the World Cup in 2016. Flora Tabanelli, a 17 year old from Emilia, had to be born to fill this gap. In the Kreischberg Big Air, Flora therefore achieves the second Italian success after that of Betagna in Moenchengladbach in December 2016. Flora has never fallen off the podium this season, enough to be the leader: fourth race of the season and fourth podium for the hope of Army looking to the 2026 Games in Italy: second in Chur, Switzerland, third in Beijing, second six days ago in Klagenfurt and finally first: a triumph that projects it even further higher in the specialty ranking and also in first place in the overall Park&Pipe ranking.

what a race

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Flora Tabanelli’s final started immediately in the best way: 93.25 points in the first run to already place a significant score, corroborated in the third run by 82.25 which achieved the first success of Flora, already double world junior champion and champion Youth Olympic. The total of 175.50 points underlines the victory of Tabanelli who precedes the Finnish Anni Karava (173.50) and the Austrian Lara Wolf (173.25); the Chinese Mingting Liu (171.25) and the Swiss Sarah Hofflin (164.25) remain at the foot of the podium.

the words

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“It’s difficult to describe my emotions at this moment – were Tabanelli’s first words -. I’ve been waiting for this result for a long time and I’m so happy to have obtained it on such a special evening, also for how my opponents skied. I’m starting to feel a bit of pressure, but I’m happy: I have to continue competing in this direction.” After four Big Air trials, the specialty ranking sees Flora in command with 320 points ahead of Liu (216) and the Swiss Mathilde Gremaud (202). On the other hand, Tabanelli has collected a total of 330 points this season, leading the general classification ahead of the other Chinese Gu (300), a Half Pipe specialist, and Gremaud (282). Sixth place instead for his brother Miro: after an unconvincing first run, the eldest of the family progressively improves up to 84.75 in the third test and the final score of 152.25 is worth a sixth place in the final dominated by the New Zealander Luca Harrington who with two run of over 90 points (187.75 total) confirms the success of Klagenfurt in the space of six days. With him on the podium are the host Matej Svancer (178.75) and the Norwegian Leo Landrø (178.50). In the specialty rankings Harrington flies to 250 points equal to Svancer, with Tabanelli fourth (156 points) also preceded by the Norwegian Tormod Frostad (212). From Tuesday 14 January we will be back on track in the Swiss Laax with a stage based on SlopeStyle.

skeleton podium

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Finally Amedeo Bagnis returns to the World Cup podium in skeleton. The Italian is third in the St. Moritz stage, the penultimate event of the season on the top circuit: on the Swiss track which saw him win the world championship in 2023 and win last year, Bagnis scored a podium finish, finishing behind the British Matt Weston, author of the best result in both heats to set the clock at 2’14″61 and the German Cristopher Grotheer (at 0″54) who overtaken in the second descent. After a difficult season so far, Bagnis found the best feeling on the Swiss track, taking second place in the first stage, only to lose to Grotheer by just two hundredths of a second. This is the third career podium for the 25-year-old from Piedmont who, in addition to the success in St. Moritz in January 2024, can also boast a third place in Lake Placid, in the United States, where the season will end with the World Championships scheduled for early March.