Pain after a horror fall
Double Olympic champion is considering ending her career
02/27/2026 – 12:26 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Italian alpine skier Federica Brignone won two gold medals at the home games. But the consequences of her serious injury from the previous year continue to bother her.
The Italian ski racer Federica Brignone is thinking about ending her career soon after her emotional double Olympic victory at the “home games” in Milan and Cortina. “If it has to be torture because I’m feeling too bad, you’ll probably hardly see me next year,” the 35-year-old told the “Gazzetta dello Sport”. She is still in pain after her horror fall in April 2025.
“The truth is that I will never fully recover,” emphasized Brignone. At the Italian championships she suffered multiple fractures of the head of the fibula and tibia and a torn cruciate ligament. Less than a year later she raced to gold in Super-G and giant slalom.
“I have to live with this injury, even if it gets better little by little. If I go skiing in the morning, I limp all day,” said the Italian. She said she would exchange her two gold medals immediately if they meant she could undo the serious fall.
Nevertheless, she is hungry for more victories. “I like competition, I always try to overcome my limits,” emphasized Brignone. At the Winter Games she “grinded her teeth” and said to herself: “It’s now or never!” The adrenaline “did the rest. But now my body and my brain refuse to continue.”
