MILAN, Jan 22 : Federica Brignone is known in Italy as the ‘Tiger’ for the ferocious determination that has helped her become the country’s most successful ever female skier. She carries an image of the predator on her helmet and gloves.
Brignone, 35, is drawing on her tigerish spirit as she tries to return to the slopes ahead of next month’s Milano Cortina Olympics after an accident in April left her with multiple leg fractures and a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament.
An impressive sixth at the World Cup giant slalom in Kronplatz on Tuesday, on her return from injury, bodes well for the Winter Games.
“At first I was a bit stiff but I remembered to breathe after a few gates. With the adrenaline I didn’t feel too much pain. I am so happy,” Brignone told Italian reporters after the first run.
“We’ll assess things further, but for now the plan is to go to Cortina to train for the speed events and see where I stand there,” she said after the second run.
Until her crash at the Italian Championships Brignone had been among the favourites for the Milano Cortina Games.
She finally got back on skis in late November after being sidelined for 292 days and having two operations.
Brignone has won two overall World Cup titles, claimed 37 World Cup victories, mostly in Giant Slalom and Super-G, and took a silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Before her, only Gustav Thoeni had achieved more among Italians, winning four overall World Cups in the 1970s.
FAMILY AFFAIR
Born in Milan, Brignone moved with her family at the age of six to La Salle, a village of about 2,000 residents in the mountainous Aosta Valley region.
She soon showed an attraction to skiing. Brignone ‘stole’ her first pair of skis from a shop when she was not yet two years old, said her mother, Maria Rosa Quario.
“We lost sight of her for a couple of minutes and found her outside trying to put them on.”
Quario herself was an athlete – winning four World Cup slalom races from 1979 to 1983 and taking fourth place at the 1980 Olympics.
Brignone’s father was a trainer at the local ski club and spotted his daughter’s early potential. She is now coached by her brother Davide, whose own promising career was cut short by a series of injuries.
“He was the real champion in the family,” Brignone, a member of Italy’s Carabinieri military police, once said.
After she won her second overall World Cup title, Courmayeur – one of the best-known ski resorts in the Italian Alps – named its piste No. 14 after her – Brignone’s favourite slope.
