Qhis racing season is over. With the conquest of the fourth downhill World Cup (the third won in a row) and a last tranche of workouts that Sofia Goggia on his Instagram profile he summarizes as follows: «Last week in Kvitfjell (Norway, ed). Wake up at 4.40, on the track at 6. Tiring yes, but how nice».
For the “orobic” champion, thirty years old, Scorpio ascendant Scorpio, two Olympic medals (one gold and one silver downhill), thehe recognition season isn’t over, however. On 5 May at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome he received the Guido Carli Foundation the Excellence in Sport award for having made Italy “great in the world”.
Sofia Goggia, the restless one
How does a certificate that goes beyond sports results fit you?
«All of us athletes aim to improve and win more and more. Clearly this pays off in terms of visibility, but receiving recognition that goes beyond the merit of a sports career is a different satisfaction. And I am grateful to whoever gave me this award. I think the fact of being “caciarona”, making fun of yourself and knowing how to easily connect with others counts».
You have three adjectives to describe the thirty-year-old Sofia Goggia: which ones do you choose?
Sofia Goggia today – and I speak of it in the third person not out of arrogance, but to be more objective – is a girl, a young woman, who has a basic restlessness within her which she has been working on for some time. But this rovello is also her driving force that makes her reach new goals. In short: it is feeling constantly inadequate that pushes me to always raise the bar, sometimes with an evolutionary tension towards growth, other times with pathological anxiety. In fact, I’m terribly demanding with myself and the races where I do badly cause me much more pain than the euphoria of victory. Then I’m stubborn and I think willpower is one of my best qualities: the one that makes me get up so many mornings with pain all over but ready to give my best on the track and recover from so many injuries».
Sofia Goggia, Photo Courtesy of Chopard, ph Julian Hargreaves. Dior Beauty make-up. Chopard jewelry: Happy Hearts collection long sautoir in certified ethical gold, onyx and mother-of-pearl hearts. Happy Hearts bangle in certified ethical gold, mother-of-pearl hearts and full pavé diamonds. Happy Sport collection watch with mother-of-pearl dial, diamond bezel, mobile diamonds between two sapphire glasses and black coconut strap.
“Girl” or “young woman”: which way does the balance tip?
«I’m in that middle zone, in that limbo. But at thirty… By now I would say young woman, come on».
A success lived with apprehension
Do you put regret for a more carefree age in your words?
«Look, I’ve never been carefree, not even at 14 years old. In fact, I was even more serious then than now. I’ve always been in my ruminations. Like Benjamin Button, I get more girlish as I get older. Having said that, I am happy to be a young woman, but I feel that the responsibilities have increased. Because it’s not true that in Italy they forgive you everything except success. Italians love those who are successful. It’s the missteps that hold you back. This is why I live my visibility with apprehension, careful where I place my feet».
In competition, however, she goes 130 km per hour. Fearless?
«There are curves or passages that are scary. But it’s only by facing the emotion that you can overcome it. In my career and in my life, I paid dearly when I was quite unconscious and didn’t have the courage to listen to my fear”.
Sofia Goggia (Photo by Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
Olympic champion yes, but of self-criticism
His career is full of injuries, even serious ones. And formidable shots. As in 2022, just a few days away from the silver medal at the Olympics. Or this year, when he competed and won in St. Moritz with his newly operated hand. Are they challenges in which you seek victory over yourself or over your opponents?
«I enter the competition above all with myself, then there is the media emphasis that dramatizes the situations. But there is nothing constructed in my attitude: I’m a “character” precisely because this is my character, since I was acting in the school theater and I had a certain “impact”. There are those who are reserved and after a race they only comment on the sporting profile of the performance. I feel that there is a woman behind the athlete and if she is sick, the sportswoman is also affected ».
Isn’t this constant testing yourself exhausting?
«Yes, it is exhausting, exhausting, pathological. It’s not enough for me to try to improve what can be improved. I am perpetually pursuing an adequacy that sporting results do not guarantee me. Only in flashes in my life have I felt that I have grasped this condition. But as if I were holding it in the dark, blindfolded. I think many consider me super confident. Instead, I am an Olympic champion in always questioning myself».
I prefer the psychiatrist to the mental coach
Can someone help you work on this malaise?
«Many athletes rely on a mental coach or a psychologist. But I turn to who I believe has the right tools to solve my discomfort: a psychiatrist. In the collective imagination, however, it is the doctor who cures “the mad” and prescribes the necessary drugs. Talking about these issues for me is a way to fight false beliefs».
Athletic skills are not enough to reach his levels. Transversal ones are also needed, the so-called soft skills: relational and organizational skills. Where do you feel strongest?
«I’m good at getting everyone to give their best, as I demand it of myself. But since “everyone is as strong as their weakest link”, sometimes my excess of demands becomes a lack of tolerance for the limits of those who work with me».
Sofia Goggia candidate for the Sanremo Festival?
Where would you like to put your off-ski skills to good use?
At this stage of my career, I have fewer years of skiing ahead of me than I have behind me. But competing at high levels requires continuous adaptations of one’s racing behavior and this is all the more demanding the more the body ages – and mine is worn out. So for now I’m concentrating on skiing. But without precluding the opportunity to sow seeds in other fields… I’m looking around, making my rounds of acquaintances. A few weeks ago Fiorello “candidate” her as co-host of Sanremo with Amadeus».
Would you be interested?
«Oh yes (big smile and shining eyes, ed), but as they say “verba volant, scripta manent”».
Ski season keeps her away from home 200 days a year. What does he do when he’s not around?
«I give everything for skiing but it’s not just skiing. However, I have very little private life and sometimes I’m so tired that I’d rather my friends gave up seeing me. Yet it is really being interested in the lives of the people who love me that recharge my batteries. I know well. For the rest I like to ride a bike, I study for the University. I enrolled at Luiss, albeit with difficulty, because finding time for exam papers when other activities drain my energy isn’t easy. But I find it very rewarding. Then I love to read. Now Pain creates winter by Matteo Porru. A story set in Siberia: to be finished before the heat breaks out! I’m so conditioned by my sporting life that when I picked it up for the first time I read the title backwards: Winter creates pain… The theme of the Carli award this year was hope».
What does Sofia Goggia hope for today?
«To be able to find the courage to pursue what is true for me and reflects my values. And above all to let go of the external situations that reflect my insecurities ».
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