Italian’s do it better

Italian Women’s Speed team inspecting PHOTO: Pentaphoto

The Italian Ski Federation (FISI) just presented their 2022/2023 season alpine squad at an event in Milan, Lombardy. They announced an 80-skier roster with different levels from the World Cup to junior groups, spearheaded by stars of the sport such as Dominik Paris, Federica Brignone, Sofia Goggia and Marta Bassino.

The Italian teams will work under two new technical directors – the men’s squad under Massimo Carca and the women’s under Giovanni Luca Rulfi, both promoted internally from previous roles within the federation.

As is traditionally the case in Italian skiing, most athletes are part of law enforcement and military sports groups. They can dedicate themselves to training and racing thanks to the salary they receive to represent their respective organizations, such as the Italian Police or Army.

Team Italy has set its goals for the new season to maintain its status as one of the top three alpine nations in the world ranking. If Austria and Switzerland have been historically the dominant teams, over the last few years, Italy has consistently established itself as the third power in the Nations Cup, sometimes overtaking Switzerland for second place behind Austria. Italian fans are optimistic for even more significant success in the next Olympic cycle as the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina loom just over the horizon.

Italian team gaining athletic and financial strength

In fact, “the Italian team is now stronger than ever,” FISI President Flavio Roda confidently declared to Ski Racing Media.  

The fact that the Italian team is a powerhouse in alpine skiing isn’t a surprise. Although soccer is the most popular national sport, skiing has a long and glorious tradition in the bel paese, the “beautiful country.”  The strong tradition dates back to the first Italian skiing hero Zeno Colò, double World Champion in 1950 in Aspen, Colorado, and first Italian Olympic gold medalist in 1952.

Colò marked an entire era of alpine skiing, despite a career interrupted by War World II and then penalized by rules against athletes deemed to be ‘professionals’ at the time. More success came in the seventies, the years of the “valanga azzurra,” the blue avalanche, with Gustav Thöni, Piero Gros and many others able to dominate the white circus for extended periods.

Deborah Compagnoni and Alberto Tomba became global ski stars in the nineties. It was a time that FISI president Roda remembers well because of his critical role in the success of “Tomba la Bomba.” Roda coached Tomba before moving on to other positions within the Italian Federation. He served first as technical director and then as president starting in 2012.

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More recently, Italy experienced World Cup event-globe-winning success with the likes of Isolde Kostner, Peter Runggaldier, Denise Karbon, Giorgio Rocca, all the way up to Manfred Mölgg and Peter Fill – all talented skiers who won crystal globes.

Big change in financial stability was realized

Still, just ten years ago, FISI was in financial disarray, a critical position where expenses far outweighed revenues and threatened the future of the sport. A necessary process of cost optimization, delivered through painful cuts in personnel and significant investments in marketing, allowed FISI to double its revenue to EUR 28 million in just five years and keep growing it to the current EUR 40 million budget. Now they are on par with the budgets of Austria and Switzerland despite having to invest in more disciplines, some of which are not financially sustainable.  

An increase in government subsidy to 14 million Euros has undoubtedly contributed to the economic health of the FISI. Additionally, the Tourism Ministry has recently authorized a million Euros of resources for FISI. Also, the increased number of Italian World Cup events has created additional commercial and broadcasting revenue opportunities.  

Roda comments, “I don’t want to say it out loud, but Italy will host more FIS alpine skiing World Cup events this season than any other country.” In total, 14 events, six women’s and eight men’s, are scheduled to take place in the Italian mountains during the 2022/2023 winter.

Two significant issues exist with Kappa and Roda’s recent reelection

Roda has reasons to be proud and optimistic. Corporate sponsorship continues to grow, and partners now compete to be associated with the Italian ski team. FISI has recently finalized a new agreement with Giorgio Armani’s brand EA7 through 2026. The deal has led the previous clothing supplier, Kappa, to sue FISI, arguing there has been a breach of renewal clauses that exist in their contract. A court ruling blocked FISI from cooperating with other uniform suppliers than Kappa. Kappa is asking for four million euros of compensation for every year of contract infringement.

Legal issues aside, Roda led a successful campaign into the 2022 FISI elections on October 15th. . Roda was reappointed with a 57,62% majority.  But another legal issue is pending. The election could be invalidated due to the number of his elected terms exceeding Italian regulations: the limit is three, and he is entering his fourth. The relevant question is whether or not to include his first term, which was shorter than the standard period of four years.

Regardless, the current FISI chair will hold onto his roles as FIS council member and FIS vice president – having received the highest number of votes at the FIS Congress held in Milan in May 2022 – guaranteeing Italian representation at the top level of FIS.

Roda is not the only Italian official holding a prestigious role within the FIS structure. Earlier this year, former coach Massimo Rinaldi was appointed chair of the FIS Alpine Committee Executive Board, the most important working group in alpine skiing. The committee decides on changes to the rules and directs the development of the sport. 

Rinaldi played a crucial role in current Italian success

Rinaldi was integral to the Italian alpine skiing renaissance of the last ten years, serving as FISI alpine sport director between 2014-2022. His was a strategic position, overseeing activities across the men’s and women’s programs. 

“It was a position introduced by Flavio (Roda),” explained Rinaldi. “It allowed us to achieve better planning and cooperation between the men’s and women’s teams. Our female athletes, in particular, benefited greatly from training together with their male teammates.” Olympic champion Sofia Goggia confirmed to SRM that she experienced significant benefits from the opportunities to train frequently with men. Goggia comments, “I learned a lot from skiers like Dominik Paris. He’s very supportive and repeatedly helped me achieve a very high training intensity.”

Italy pursues multi-event approach

Rinaldi, now FISI’s Head of International Relationships, described how moving away from specialization was vital for the Italian women’s team to succeed. 

“We aimed to have more multi-discipline skiers in the women’s team and obtained amazing results, particularly with Goggia, Brignone and Bassino. We put them into an “elite group” team and the results were impressive. All of them improved significantly, and despite not sharing coaches and staff anymore, they can still get tremendous value out of their work together.” 

Innovation in training and development strategies is essential in the Italian system. According to Rinaldi, the National Coaching School – or “Scuola Tecnici Federali (STF)” – is another strength of the Italian team. Italy’s former alpine sport director says, “We are a step ahead compared to other nations. Not only do we have well-prepared coaches at the elite level, as demonstrated by the fact that other national teams have recruited several Italian coaches, but we also have well-prepared club coaches doing extraordinary work inspiring and developing younger ski racers.” 

If anything, the problem for Rinaldi and his staff was often the abundance of talent, with a large pool of promising athletes making the selection for the national team, a challenging task for the coaches. Even a legend like Alberto Tomba barely made it through the ranks as a young athlete. Tomba’s inclusion in the “C-team” only happened at the last minute and only because one of the regional managers repeatedly insisted that investing in that “city boy” would be worthwhile!

inclusive new pathway ‘athletes under observation’ to the top level

In 2014 FISI decided to develop an additional pathway for those athletes who failed to qualify through the ‘Gran Premio Italia,’ a circuit of FIS races used to establish the national ranking and secure automatic team selection for the top-placed athletes. 

With the support of conditioning trainer Roberto Manzoni, Rinaldi created a new group labeled “gli osservati” (“the athletes under observation“) to give those skiers an extra chance.

“Sometimes we have more than eight young athletes who deserve inclusion in the C-team and we don’t want to cut out those who fall outside the available quota. It’s a process that can be very disappointing and lead some skiers to stop competing altogether,” Rinaldi explained. Under the current system, those athletes still get to join the training camps organized by FISI, work with their club coaches and undergo functional tests to track their athletic performances. About forty skiers participate in this program annually, and this group spends about forty days on snow participating in top-quality training. “It also gives them a taste for the national team atmosphere,” concluded Rinaldi.

Blardone welcomes the positive changes

Another celebrated Italian skier from the early 2000s, Massimiliano “Max” Blardone, vouches for improvements over the last decade in managing the FISI development pathways. He says, “In the last ten years, FISI has become much better organized, programs are clearer and coaches get paid regularly, which wasn’t always the case earlier.”  Now a coach himself, Blardone has been wearing the national team colors for 23 years without interruptions and has witnessed firsthand the changes implemented within the Italian Federation.

“When I started competing in the World Cup, that was a tough time for our federation,” reminisced Blardone. “After Tomba retired, we were missing a strong character who could go beyond the niche of ski racing fans. Despite Italian athletes still performing well and winning, the alpine movement suffered. In the last ten years, we have benefited from key staffing improvements, with fewer people in the offices and more strength and conditioning coaches and physios supporting our B- and C-teams on the ground. That made a difference.”

Blardone has started his fourth season as coach of the men’s C-team and knows the FISI organization inside out. “We now have many promising youngsters and we can integrate the new ones with the support of their club coaches, who also get invitations to the training camps. Utilizing these camps allows young skiers to improve their confidence and all of us get to know each other better and faster.”

Role of military and police sports groups

Blardone was part of a military sport group during his career – he was a member of the “Fiamme Gialle,” the Italian law enforcement agency responsible for dealing with financial crimes. “I don’t come from a wealthy family and my dad and mum worked hard to support me. Receiving a salary provided me with the possibility to support myself. It was life-changing for me, as it still is for many athletes in the Italian national teams.”

Between the support of Italian police force sport groups and the increasing FISI budget, more and more Italian C-team skiers can train and compete in the Southern Hemisphere over the summer. That’s key, according to Blardone, because “skiing has become more and more demanding and there is no time to waste,” he explained. He is referring to how other nations start investing in skiers at a very young age, allowing them to develop faster and aim for success sooner.

No stone unturned

FISI is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to maintain its Italian teams at the top of the sport. Since 2001, they have also been working with the Mapei Sport Research Center (MSRC), one of the most advanced multisport research institutions available in the country. Initially founded in 1996 to support the professional cycling team sponsored by building materials manufacturing company Mapei, the center now works with top football teams (including Juventus F.C., Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille and U.S. Sassuolo), basketball clubs, tennis, running and motorsports athletes.

“We practice regular functional assessments, measuring physiological qualities such as strength and endurance, monitoring the athletes and their training progression,” explained General Manager Ermanno Rampinini when asked about their cooperation with FISI. After determining which athletic parameters impact skiing performance, the center’s assessments allow athletes and conditioning coaches to understand better and compare their “dry training.”

“We noticed that (Italian) skiers have become better and better athletes. Female skiers, in particular, have reached a very high standard compared to the past. The physical qualities we observe won’t necessarily determine the level of their skiing performances, but who is better in the testing wins more.”

Human performance lab

“Our work in cooperation with FISI strength and conditioning coaches enables athletes to learn more about themselves in the first place,” concluded Rampinini, who is also responsible for the Human Performance Lab at MSRC. The staff at the lab performs tests on up to 70 Italian skiers two to three times a year. They have also adopted a specific leg-press test for skiers, the “Mognoni” press, named after the researcher who invented it. The test simulates, with a reasonable degree of approximation, specific physical demands of the sport and, among other parameters, help assess the athlete’s capability to produce and control leg power during skiing.

Is this enough to lift Italy to the top of the alpine ranking? Press Officer Massimiliano Vergani, in charge of FISI communication activities since 2001, is aware that sustaining success across all areas of the sport for extended periods is a big challenge for any organization. “It also goes in cycles,” Vergani said, explaining that the Italian women’s team has been dominant in recent years, “but there is now a gap and we struggle to see top-level talents coming through the youth system. . In the past, men used to be dominant. We now have promising young skiers like Giovanni Franzoni, Filippo Della Vite, Marco Abbruzzese and Matteo Franzoso, who could become top skiers.”

Italians value a conservative approach to development but are modifying it in tech events

For now, the officials in charge at FISI are sticking to their conservative approach. The Italian system differs from other countries like Norway and the US, where young talents often have the opportunity to experience the world stage more quickly. The Italian design is a step-by-step development pathway through FIS races and Europa Cup events, making it less likely for Italian skiers to reach World Cup podiums at a young age. However, FISI believes its approach will produce better outcomes in the long run. .  The newly appointed FIFI men’s Sport Director, Max Carca, confirms this strategy will continue for speed disciplines,  but his plan for tech races is providing more World Cup opportunities to the deserving younger athletes.

With the 2026 home Winter Games in Milano Cortina rapidly approaching, the Italian sport authorities will be looking at giving an extra boost to a sport that saw a significant increase in participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number now tops 80,000 members, of which 85% are involved in alpine skiing. FISI naturally hopes an expansion of involvement translates into more opportunities to identify talent

“We have 37,000 FISI members under 18 years of age and about 8,000 were born in 2006 and 2005. This is a substantial base for the international races,” said Vergani, adding that a larger FISI budget made it possible to expand the alpine teams and invest in other winter disciplines. 

Impact of home Olympics

“Looking at the next Olympics, Milano Cortina 2026, we are very optimistic and have medal chances in many sports,” continued Vergani. “The attention to winter sports is growing in Italy and allows our federation to grow as well.”

Two years ago, FISI celebrated its 100th anniversary with a big party attended by current athletes and some of the sport’s legends. Alberto Tomba was nominated as FISI Athlete of the Century, ahead of Gustav Thöni. But as they keep celebrating their past heroes, Italian fans are already looking ahead to 2026, keen to find out whether the Italian champions of the new century will have Olympic success in their home mountains.