Alpine Skiing FIS World Cup 2022 - 2023

Monzanator · November 30, 2022

Yeah, I suppose the good World Cup start shows Colturi is basically better than any Italian not named Brignone & Bassino. Other than money I have no idea why she wasn't drafted into the Italian team before unless there is some backstage beef I'm not aware of.

heywoodu · November 30, 2022

30 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

According to Italian Media, Colturi will back to compete for Italy in the next 1-2 years. She and her mum say that the door is open.

Wasn't that kind of always the plan? Every time she was mentioned or shown, the Dutch commentator said "for now" when saying she competes for Albania and basically said it would only be until Italy would let her compete in the big races

Dunadan · November 30, 2022

It was big news months ago. Ceccarelli wanted, starting from this season, a private team for her daughter, under her direction but with the federation's money...of course the request was denied, but if she shows to be a phenomenal skier at WC level it might be reconsidered.

phelps · December 1, 2022

18 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Yeah, I suppose the good World Cup start shows Colturi is basically better than any Italian not named Brignone & Bassino. Other than money I have no idea why she wasn't drafted into the Italian team before unless there is some backstage beef I'm not aware of.

because of the system and the opportunities she wouldn't have in a short time staying in Italy...

here there's no chance for a girl (or a boy) to jump from the age groups to the senior NT, you have to be named for the junior squad and competing in the age class races, then if you win a couple of those races, you can be named to the B squad and start in the European Cup races and only if you win (or at least constantly make the podium) in that competition, then you can be named for the senior squad.

no way you can miss some steps.

it would take at least 1 year to climb all the ladder, wasting time, money and with a big chance of being stuck under a coach that can't develop such talent.

moreover, when you are in the "minor" or youth teams, you just can't have a personal coach and training staff, you have to stay with the whole team and with the coaches named by the NF, which was the main point of the controversy between Lara's family and our NF (they always said that the point is not to waste her talent training with people 2+ seconds behind her on a 30-sec training run...and they also didn't want her to be forced to train only in the technical disciplines, when she's considered a big talent also in the speed events* -and here in the youth classes there's no way to be an all-rounder).

*Lara said to the main sport website just this morning that she's going to start also in Super-G, especially in St.Moritz, where she's used to train and knows the track very well.

p.s. she also said that she considers Skiing a totally individual sport, like tennis, golf and so on, therefore I don't think she's going to get back to a big National Team like Italy in a short time, unless she gets a written contract saying she can do whatever she wants.

and despite not closing the door once and forever, she said that she's not considering a comeback to Italy right now (no idea of how some Italian media made a different interpretation of her words, maybe it's just the beginning of a stalking strategy)...

I think she's stricter than her family on this point.

phelps · December 1, 2022

18 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Wasn't that kind of always the plan? Every time she was mentioned or shown, the Dutch commentator said "for now" when saying she competes for Albania and basically said it would only be until Italy would let her compete in the big races

I think it's more our NF that hopes that was the plan since the beginning...

not sure the family (and especially Lara) thinks the same.

we'll see when she turns 18 and has to make the final choice before the 3-year IOC rule about changing Nationality.

P.s. personally, I hope she will never compete for Italy and I hope she wins more races and titles than all the Italian skiers all together...just to let the whole world know how stupid are the people running the Italian Winter Sports :pope: