“I hated every minute of training, but I said to myself, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life like a champion.’”. In the words of Muhammad Ali there is the essence of high-level sport. Suffering as future income, as eternal glory. And the more you climb the mountain of success, the more you have to suffer. Also because champions are never satiated, satisfied. Otherwise how can you explain the tears of Cristiano Ronaldo after a missed penalty during a match of the Europeans – competition that has already been won – or after a final lost in Arabia despite the fact that behind him shines a trophy cabinet full of Lighe, Premier, Champions and Golden Balls? Champions are like that.
Sofia Goggia is the embodiment of champion pride. A cocktail of talent and madness, ingredients that, when mixed in the right way, have a sensational effect. The problem is knowing how to mix them well, because an excess on one side or the other can create side effects.
The side effect for Sofia Goggia has a name and a date: Cortina, January 23, 2022. The Italian skier is competing in the Super-G. She is coming off successes and encouraging performances, also the result of descents bordering on recklessness, but that day good luck is no exception. Especially when you are going down at 110 kilometers per hour. A ditch – a damned ditch – gives her no escape. Due to an annoying cut in the light she closes her eyes for an instant. A very short period of time, enough to lay the foundations for disaster: Sofia spreads her skis, soars into the air, hits the pole and ends up on the ground. A terrifying injury. For a few seconds, Cortina falls silent. Then, driven by the desire to go all the way, Goggia gets back up and finishes the race, but she is in a lot of pain.
In sports, injuries must be taken into account, even at the highest levels. Everything is accepted, after all Sofia is not new to very heavy knockouts. There is a factor, however, different from the past, that makes this pill practically impossible to digest: The Beijing Winter Olympics begin in 23 days. And Sofia Goggia is the star of the Italian expedition.
To weigh down the psychological picture, there is the clinical picture: microfracture of the fibula, sprain of the left knee and cruciate ligament injury. There is a tiny thread left to prevent the rupture of that same ligament. Sofia clings to it to avoid falling into the abyss of sporting oblivion. No, she doesn’t want to give up, but she will have to hope that that thread, however thin, is enough to support an athlete who, due to her professional deformation, mistreats her ligaments every day. “Let’s try”. The comeback is sensational, but it is taking shape day by day, even if there are moments of despair: like when the Italian athlete is forced to say goodbye from a distance to the rest of the Italian team leaving for Beijing, while she is still struggling with knee pads, squats, weights and an exercise bike. But he doesn’t give up, even if he hates every moment of those workouts. Because the others are already there getting ready and she is not yet able to decide if she can leave. She goes back to the track to test her knee: not bad. So yes, it can be done! And in the end, she leaves too. “However it goes, it can also happen that you fall again, that you get hurt again, but in Beijing you compete”.
Race day arrives. An entire nation holds its breath. Sofia reaches the finish line, slows down as usual after crossing the red line, gathers her energy and, squeezing the poles, shouts out everything she has inside. He made it and in Beijing he also took home a silver medal. He followed Muhammed Ali’s advice to the letter: “Don’t stop. Suffer now and live the rest of your life like a champion”.