Olympics, Beijing: Razzoli-Vinatzer, the slalom of truth to ignite the Italian Games

“Going to the Games is already beautiful, but going there to play for a medal is quite another thing”. Three years ago, when he had fallen to seventieth place on the slalom starting list, Giuliano Razzoli had been advised to go and make vinegar. The good, balsamic one, the one that is also made on the Modena Apennines, a tradition that his family also carries on in Razzolo di Villa Minozzo. All in all, what was he missing? On skis he had achieved the most an athlete could wish for, Olympic gold. He could also make room for others.

From scratch

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Instead, the Rocket, focusing on pride, made it a matter of principle. He didn’t let go, healed his wounds, relieved a back he has always had to deal with and began to climb back up the slope. He even went to Australia and New Zealand to compete and get the points necessary to compete in the World Cup and do it with a non-prohibitive bib. A slow but steady climb, with many stops, but which this year has brought him where he would never have imagined seeing him again, on a World Cup podium, six years after the last time. His tears for third place in the Wengen slalom tell this story. “The last podium I had done right there. The week after I went to Kitzbuehel to win, I was perhaps in the best moment of my career. I broke a crusader. To get back to this level I moved from the Italian Cup, I finished fifth in Campiglio with the 69, I went close to the podium many times without getting on it. It was very hard, I remember that in Kranjska Gora in 2017 I just couldn’t make it, a few tears came out at that time. But then you roll up your sleeves and in the end you can do it. When Kristoffersen came out in Wengen a month ago, leaving me in third place, I thought it was right. “

Its best

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If you think about it it is incredible, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic champion who twelve years later manages to build a chance for a medal. “Then I used the cleanliness of the gesture, the touch on the snow to make speed. Every now and then I made a mistake, to go fast I had to be really fit. I would have found continuity in the three years between 2014 and 2016, before getting hurt. our specialty has been going on since then, Hirscher is gone and has freed up a place on the podium but skiing like then is no longer enough today. The curve is shorter, the skis change and the technique is updated. I know I don’t have the Noel’s pace, but I try to find my perfect skiing. I’m no longer tied to the past, I tried to modify my gesture by keeping its strengths. Every experience makes you grow, improve. The tests you pass give you mental strength, make you stronger “. Strong like vinegar.

Alex Vinatzer

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“Just normal notes, Alex, okay?” One would have to ask this of Vinatzer in view of the Olympic slalom. Paraphrasing Twentieth century by Alessandro Baricco and the conductor’s sentence to that tightrope pianist, one would ask Alex to try to manage himself for once, to slow down his frenzied dance between the stakes a little, not to worry if for once he doesn’t he brings to the streets all the enormous talent he has and which leads him to amazing heats, but which too often derails him. But Alex cannot be asked for such a thing, a thoroughbred horse cannot be harnessed. Because he is a champion, everyone knows. And tonight he could make the shot, he’s got it in the barrel. He’s had it in the barrel for at least two years. And sooner or later he will leave.

Future

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Alex Vinatzer is the future of blue skiing for men, the only twenty-year-old who approaches the podium in a national team in which only the thirty-year-olds have been strong for too many years. He was brought to PyeongChang at 18 to give him experience and in this four years he has shown an extraordinary talent. He has not yet won, he has been very unlucky with injuries, but two podiums in the World Cup – in January 2020 in Zagreb, in December of the same year in Campiglio – and many terrific heats have shown that he has an engine out of the way. common. The problem is that Alex goes out, it happens often. “It is useless to deny that the expectations are quite high – he says -. I will try to ski at full speed. We will have to see what the Austrian coach will look like, then we will make the battle plan”. On the ‘Ice River’ it will be necessary to attack. “I arrived in China on the 8th. I immediately took the spindle, I called the preparation, I fixed the last things on the material. The giant helped me to become familiar with this snow. How is it? A little different. , you have to adapt. Then you can ski as you usually do, but it takes a moment to lose 2 or 3 tenths of a second. I think it will be necessary above all to conduct the material, to be clean, to take care of the cut at the entrance of the curves. And not to brake, because here if you brake you lose a lot, don’t start again “.

Open competition

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In the 6 World Cup slaloms there were 6 different winners and 14 different athletes on the podium. He didn’t make it, yet no one denies him a chance. Are 20 worth a medal? “I don’t think so. Those who ski more fluidly here will find it better. People who have a lot of drive like Feller, Foss-Solevaag, the Strolz of combined, even Razzoli. material to technical, from psychological to nutrition. Everything should be fine “. Normal or not, you need the right notes, Alex. Only you know what they are.