Federica Brignone approaches season with individual program, fresh outlook
Federica Brignone stood on stage in Milan, all smiles and appearing as happy as ever, having been presented the Collari D’Oro (Gold Collar Award) earlier this week, an honor recognizing her outstanding 2019-20 season, in which she became the first Italian woman to win an overall World Cup title. Brignone was one of four recipients of the national award for winter sports achievement, the highest honor in all of Italian sport.
But the joy and satisfaction from that triumphant season unexpectedly turned to frustration and indecision. Instead of building upon the momentum from the record-breaking campaign, Brignone struggled through a nightmarish 2020-21 season, at times even admitting that she wanted to quit and go home.
The 31-year-old Italian ski racing star finished a disappointing seventh in the overall standings, suffered three DNFs on home snow at the world championships in Cortina in February, salvaged just one World Cup victory, and even floated the possibility of retirement upon its conclusion.
“I was not happy and I wanted to go home. I was not having fun training; I was not having fun skiing, always stressed, and for me it was almost like a duty to race,” Brignone reveals to Ski Racing Media, on a phone call while driving to Soelden for the season-opening race. “I’m not a robot – I want to do this because it’s my passion.”
Brignone, who resides in La Salle in the Aosta Valley of Northwestern Italy, said the February world championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo were equally as frustrating.
“I was in shape, but my head was not good from the beginning of the season, so I arrived at the world championships with a lot of stress and because it was in Italy,” she said. “I was not having fun, almost saying that I wanted to quit skiing every day.”
However, Brignone believes that her troubles of last season are in the rearview mirror, entering the 2021-22 Olympic season on a new road with a fresh perspective, positive mindset and restructured approach as her brother Davide will be her primary coach, developing and implementing a customized training and race program.
“I asked for a program made for me because it’s just not the same when you have a program made for many people and I’m really the only one doing every discipline,” Brignone says, referring to offseason discussions with the Italian Ski Team. “I wanted to keep my brother with me after four years of work together, but they said no and that my brother was not welcome with the elite team.
“I said ‘Ok, I won’t accept that, so I will train just with him’ – we managed at the end to stay with the team, but not with the elite team for training,” she explains. “It was good to change – Davide will be with me all season and at every training.
Brignone says positive changes are already evident.
“Already, I had fun this summer, working with my brother and technician. I worked really hard, and physically I think I have never been like I am this year.
“It’s a new challenge and it can go wrong when I race, but I know this is the right way. It’s also a lot more responsibility for my brother,” she adds.
Federica’s brother Davide, who serves not only as her coach, but closest confidante, hasn’t missed a race since 2016. He gave up his own ski racing career after multiple injuries, choosing to use the skills, knowledge and experience to help his sister push hers further.
“I prefer and like more the part where I am coaching and helping her personally,” Davide says, in the car ride to Austria along with his sister. “From my point of view, the changes are not that much – for me, the most important thing is that Federica is healthy, she feels good and is training well.
“The season is long, so you have to be strong mentally and physically all season and this will be the most difficult and most important for her to achieve those good results,” he said.
Brignone aims to kick off the new season in high gear, driving towards regaining the speed, consistency and satisfaction from the coronavirus-shortened season of two winters ago. In 2019-20, she won the overall title by 153 points over three-time defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin, while also achieving season titles in giant slalom and combined.
While new challenges and obstacles are immediately ahead, Brignone is not lost upon the magnitude of her unprecedented achievement, especially being honored by the Italian Olympic Committee with the prestigious award.
“Even two years afterwards, they recognized what I did and it makes you realize that you really made history in our sport,” she said.
The Soelden opener and onwards
With the Soelden season opener two weeks away – a giant slalom that Brignone won in 2015 and finished runner-up last October – she certainly exudes confidence given her track record on the demanding Austrian glacier course, but admits, she is unsure of where exactly she will stack up.
“Soelden is a race where you have to be very aggressive – it matters how you ski, but it’s the attitude that makes the difference on the steep part because it is a tough race with a high altitude and is physically very hard on your body,” Brignone says. “You have to be strong and push from beginning to end.
“I don’t know where I am right now, but I know if I am skiing good, then I am one of the best.”
In terms of her setup for the upcoming season, Brignone remains with Rossignol skis and says she does not foresee major changes despite last season’s struggles. However, ski testing continues.
Addressing her race schedule plans, the Italian says: “I will concentrate mostly on GS and super-G, where I will race every event, and then I will choose some downhill and slalom races.
“From St. Moritz in December on, I will race many more events, even in downhill and slalom.”
Brignone says she will skip the November slaloms in Levi and the parallel event in Lech, in order to travel to the U.S. to obtain valuable speed training at the U.S. Ski Team Training Center at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
“We call it a ski gym because it’s comfortable, really convenient and good training,” Brignone says. “We’ve been skiing on glaciers all summer and I want to ski in winter conditions on longer slopes. In Colorado, we stay in a flat for 10 days, you don’t move every few days, and it’s actually pretty fun.
Brignone says she enjoys most everything about her time spent in the U.S., where many items are bigger and maybe better, albeit forgetting that the metric system is non-existent.
“In the market, you want to buy milk and there is like 10 liters of milk, not just like one half liter here in Europe – it’s all pretty fun,” the Italian says with a laugh.
The great unknown of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games
Brignone greatly anticipates competing at her fourth Olympic Games, in Beijing this February, despite coronavirus countermeasures, unknown tracks and a venue that has yet to be seen by international racers.
“Having a new slope that nobody knows, for me as a tech skier and I can adapt a lot, I think it’s cool,” Brignone said. “I’m somebody that doesn’t need a lot of time on the slope, and normally when something is new, I’m good at it.”
The veteran Italian racer garnered an Olympic GS bronze medal in PyeongChang 2018, but generally has not thrived at previous Olympic Games. She made her Olympic debut in Vancouver 2010, at age 19.
“In Sochi (2014), I was coming back from one year of injuries. In PyeongChang (2018) in super-G, I was close to making a big result and GS was good, and in Vancouver (2010) I did it all wrong, but it was a good experience.
“Qualifications will be tough for sure, but I hope to be there for more events and not just GS and super-G,” Brignone says of making the Italian team in Beijing. “I hope to have a ticket for many disciplines.”
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