Goggia celebrates with the staff in Lake Louise, GEPA PHOTOS

Ever since she conquered her second Olympic medal in Beijing in 2022. #onlythebrave is Sofia Goggia’s favorite hashtag. 

The Italian star pushes boundaries and challenges established rules. After crashing hard last January and recovering from her injuries in record time, she keeps showing that no matter what happens to her, she is part of an elite group of skiers who are hard to beat.

After the cancellation of the events in Zermatt-Cervinia, Goggia had planned to start her World Cup campaign at the Killington GS but then decided to focus on preparing for the opening speed events of the season in Lake Louise. When the women last raced in Lake Louise, she claimed three wins.

In November, ‘Sofi’ Goggia trained for an extended period at Copper Mountain with the Swiss and the Austrians “to accumulate more miles on the skis and to compare herself with some of her best competitors.” 

“We were a bit short with equipment testing, so we preferred to stay longer in Copper, to work on the speed disciplines,” Goggia’s new coach, Luca Agazzi informed SRM.

Strategy succeeds

The work paid off and Sofia won back-to-back downhill races in Lake Louise, immediately taking the red downhill discipline of the World Cup leader, a bib she’s worn non-stop for two years. She has held the leader bib since the second DH in Val d’Isère in 2020/2021, despite having missed several races due to injuries.

Her fifth place in the Lake Louise Super-G also shows how competitive Goggia can be in the overall title fight, considering “the poor skiing in the first section, and since Cortina, I didn’t race in SG.”

Goggia also plans to compete in Giant Slalom, starting in Sestriere next weekend, then in Semmering and other GSs during the season.

From a mini team to a semi-personal team

In the last few years, Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone, and Marta Bassino were in the Italian team’s so-called “Elite Group” under Coach Giovanni Luca Rulfi. 

Goggia speaks highly about the work she and her teammates put in over that period. “The three of us could sustain a high volume of quality work. If you lock three racehorses in a corral, they pull each other,” she explained.

“I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to ski with them because I’ve got so much to learn, especially on the technical side. I’m weak in that respect, and they are among the world’s best”.

Goggia is also grateful to the group’s ex-coach Rulfi, who is now the head coach of the Italian women’s team. 

“He’s been fundamental, and anyway, he’s still there for me this season,” said Goggia.

Training groups reevaluated

The Elite Group no longer exists. It was split into what Rulfi refers to as ‘semi-personal’ teams. He justifies the decision with “the need to put things in order.” 

“I want to be honest; they don’t love each other, especially two of them [Goggia and Brignone]. Splitting the group up was necessary. It was the only choice,” Rulfi told SRM. 

“It’s been a good choice for me and my team. I feel I’m the best one to coordinate the different groups, as I know Goggia, Brignone, and Bassino very well, and I’ve never had any problem working with them. I couldn’t continue with just one of the three and I now coordinate this ‘zoo’, as I jokingly call it.” 

“The Federation couldn’t afford three completely private teams,” continued Rulfi. “We agreed they should share some of the staff and join forces when needed. But Goggia has her dedicated coach [Luca Agazzi], and so do Brignone [Davide Brignone] and Bassino [Daniele Simoncelli]. 

“The Elite Group survives, but each of them now has more autonomy, and I’m the zookeeper,” Rulfi chuckled.

Goggia said she is very happy about the new structure and how it was conceived—adding that “in spring we were allowed to choose a personal coach. I chose Luca Agazzi because he has known me for a long time. 

“He’s from the Bergamo area, same as me, and he used to work with a local ski club attending the same races I did with my club. He watched me grow up and kept an eye on me when we both moved to the World Cup. Maybe it’s the blood connection between the people from Bergamo.”

A great relationship with ski serviceman

Agazzi is not the only man from Bergamo in Goggia’s entourage. Her serviceman from Atomic, Barnaba “Babi” Greppi, who previously worked with Lara Gut-Behrami, comes from the same area. Babi and Sofi get along very well and catch up during the off-season somewhere near Bergamo. 

Greppi said the two spend a lot of time together, either on skis or during the long drives across the Alps. 

“We don’t only talk about skiing. Although top athletes have mental coaches, we are the real psychologists in the field. Sofia is a very open woman who feels free to discuss her private life with me.  

“With her, you never get bored. I’m not aware of if there’s a side of her personality that she keeps hidden. Some people claim that she isn’t always sincere, but it’s obvious that they don’t know her. Then there are also issues we don’t discuss, such as the friction with Brignone.” With the new team structure, ‘friction’ seems to be a thing of the past.”

Inspired by Lindsey and by men

When she was younger, Goggia looked up to the GOAT Lindsey Vonn, and the two became friends while dueling for the podium’s highest step. Lindsey and Sofi met in September in Italy and then again in Copper Mountain on November 15, celebrating Sofia’s 30th birthday.

Vonn wanted to compete in a men’s race at Lake Louise but never accomplished her dream. Sofia hasn’t pushed herself that far, but she still trains with the men’s team sometimes, inspiring her to become a better skier. 

“I think skiing with the men is fantastic. In preparation for the 2017 season, when I was really strong in downhill, I trained at Valle Nevado with the Norwegian men’s team. Guys like Svindal, Jansrud, and Kilde. Their technique was interesting to study, but their attitude was more inspiring for me. I use men skiers as an example,” Goggia said. 

Benefiting from training with Dominik Paris

Last summer, Goggia took the opportunity to ski with fellow Italian in South America, the 2019 Super G World Champion Dominik Paris. 

“For four days, it was just him and me,” she said. “My run time in the previous sessions, skiing with other women, was around 50 seconds. With him, my time went down to 40 seconds. I had to keep up with his intensity, and my skis shook so much. I was at full speed and I did fewer runs but at the highest level of engagement. That kind of training gives me a different attitude, and I could see it in the video analysis.”

Skiing the same course as Paris allowed Goggia to “check where he starts the turns, where to be brave, how to attack a certain line.”

Her relationship with the top men’s Italian speed skier and Red Bull teammate is very open, Goggia said.

“I think he respects me as much as I admire him. I admire him a lot. You don’t take for granted that a male skier can work with you like this, discussing strategy during the course inspection and answering all my questions. He looked at my runs carefully, and at the end, he gave me precious feedback like, ”“On that turn, you had too much of a GS approach. You should have waited more.”

Technique, university, animals

Goggia’s coach, Luca Agazzi, explained to SRM the technical work Goggia has been focusing on the most: “We tried to bring the hips towards the center of the skis, on the feet. This helps avoid the rotation she suffers from when she enters the turns. We did some low-speed work in Slalom and Giant Slalom. That has been our main goal from a technical perspective, trying to avoid shifting with the upper body and staying over her feet. This has given her much more stability, but there’s still some work to do.”

Agazzi agrees that skiing with Paris benefited Goggia, putting her in a more stimulating environment and pushing her to ski at a higher level.

In winter, Goggia is wholly dedicated to her skiing, but her love for culture means that she’s more likely to pick up a book of poetry instead of watching TV in her spare time. In the off-season, Goggia dedicates time to her education, studying Political Science at the international Luiss University. “I enjoy studying without taking away time from my skiing activity. I have no pressure to complete my studies quickly, but I’ve passed five exams this year. Investing in culture is the best investment you can do for yourself,” she told SRM. 

Goggia loves animals

Recently, she also committed to another kind of investment, putting capital into a hen farm. Goggia loves animals. Several years ago, she chose to accept a calf in place of the race prize money in Val d’Isère. She enthusiastically embraced the animal option offered by the organizers.

Goggia has always enjoyed the relaxation of bucolic life, sometimes working at the ‘Agriturismo Ferdy,’ a farm hotel near Scalvino, Bergamo, with her childhood best friend, Nicolò. She then partnered with a business associate to raise chickens, about 2500 of them, free to roam in a natural environment and produce organic eggs, now used by some of the best Italian chefs.

As a young girl in fourth grade, Goggia wrote in a school essay that her dream was to win the Olympic gold medal in the downhill. Her dream came true in Pyeongchang 2018, but Goggia keeps dreaming and is one to watch for the rest of the season. She has established herself as a possible contender in the predicted dual of Shiffrin-Vlhová for the Overall Globe. 

The next episode is on her home soil, at the Sestriere GS.