Federica Brignone is the new Olympic giant slalom champion. In the lead after the first heat on the Olympia delle Tofane, the 35-year-old from Valle d’Aosta, a member of the Carabinieri Sports Centre, successfully defends her lead and takes home her second gold at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games after the one in super-G.
For the La Salle Tiger, who is also the reigning world champion between the wide gates thanks to the success a year ago in Saalbach, this is the fifth Olympic medal of her career: in Pyeongchang 2018 she won a bronze (giant) while four years later in Beijing she received a silver (giant) and another bronze (combined). Brignone also becomes the first Italian in the history of alpine skiing to win two gold medals in the same edition, a feat that only Alberto Tomba managed in the men’s competition in Calgary 1988 (giant and slalom). The record for gold medals among women remains with Deborah Compagnoni with three (super-G Albertville 1992 and giant slalom in Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998).
Brignone’s emotion
“I swear I’m so speechless I can’t understand anything.” This is how Federica Brignone comments hotly on Rai Sport’s microphones about her second gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics, in the giant slalom. «Today I was really calm even before the first run – she underlines -, I was almost too calm, I was afraid of not being aggressive enough, in the second I felt like I was leaving, I was quite calm again and I only thought about skiing. I felt like I had a so-so heat and I tried to push as much as possible. When I crossed the finish line I only heard the screams and I no longer understood anything.”