copravolley

Do you have or have you ever had an modern ice track?

Still no progress in the Italian team: 2x 4th place in men's singles and women's doubles+ a fall in the team relay. Men's doubles and women's singles without any progress for years. What's worse, our women's doubles also significantly lowered their level: without a single podium in the World Cup in this season. As of today, I'm betting on 0 medals in Cortina for us, excluding some miracles on the home track.

There is some progress at Barp and Carollo but almost everything is still based on Pellegrino. In the men's we lost a great talent - de Fabiani and Davide Graz - they are at an age where we have a generation gap in these age groups: 1994-2000. In the women's I`m happy with Monsorno's progress in sprints but the last podium WC in the women's category was in... 2011. We wasted 15 years in the women's category and now we are only waking up with 1 year to go until the games in Cortina, when we should have a ready team like Germany (I will skip Scandinavia because of its completely different potential).

Italy doesn't exist in women's technical competitions without from Brignone and Goggia - both over 30 age. Unfortunately Bassino has been out of good shipe since from last season in the giant slalom and she is unrecognizable in some competitions. In the case of Goggia I also don't really believe in regular podiums in the giant slalom - she can't have falls and win in the downhill and super-G. The giant slalom is just a bonus. The Italian women's slalom has basically been non-existent for many years. One Peterlini qualifies for the 30 and doesn't finish half of the competitions. I can't understand how it was possible to lose Colturi in a situation where other Italians have fallen so badly. Unfortunately it's not the Italian federation that should be setting the conditions here but it's Colturi and her mother - a talent on par with Shiffrin at her age.

In Italy in recent years there is simply been a problem with training new talents and looking at Colturi, the problem probably isn`t a lack of talented youngsters but poor training. Colturi and Collomb were at similar level a few years ago but where are they now? And this is the same year of born - 2006. Since Goggia and Brignone young time we haven`t trained a single champion. It`s the same with men. Vinatzer is wasting away and regressing in development, the same with della Vite in the giant slalom. The problem is it the outdated system which proved effective at the beginning of the 21st century but not now This also applies to other winter disciplines with a few exceptions.

The Italian team's skis on the downhill today were at the level of third world countries. Shame.

We have competitions at home, before the season we got a good service from Sweden, and today Pellegrino on the last straight had skis like a junior compared to Norway, Sweden or Switzerland. I don't understand it. After all, having a competiton at home you should have a natural advantage over your rivals. This season is terrible for us in cross-country skiing and biathlon: so far in these two disciplines we have won 1 podium - 3rd place for Pellegrino in the sprint in Lillehammer. The closer we get to the games in Cortina, the worse it gets for us unfortunately

Today Elia Barp took 13th place and I would expect stability at this level until the end of the season. Then I will consider that there is progress in his case. The problem is that only he and Pellegrino are still at decent level in the distances. Unfortunately de Fabiani's health problems and Davide Graz's complete collapse unable for us from fielding a strong relay team in the top 6. I don't know how the our staff will do with this but there isn`t much time left until the World Championships.

What are your impressions of the Italian team in the first part of the season? What were your expectations?

The Italian team is still doing terribly. While there has been stabilization at an average level for women, there has been a dramatic downward slide for men. Today the only skier in the top 30 was Elia Barp - 23rd place. The rest without comment. Pellegrino is already going down due to age. De Fabiani is missing from 2 seasons, Graz isn`t making any progress. The only hope is Barp but he is also very unstable. Compared to the French team, we are 10 years behind I no longer believe that we will ever be reborn in this sport. If starting at home and having a theoretical advantage in materials, we are able to have 1 skier to 30 in the freestyle technique, which has always been better for us, it's hard to even comment on that.

The Italian team bought a wax- bus from Sweden before the season and acquired head of their serviceman, so maybe that's the reason? The investment hasn`t been successful so far, because there is still a void beyond Pellegrino and these young skiers aren`t mentally ready for a tough fight. Once there was a skier from Poland - Justyna Kowalczyk, who fought with the whole coalition of Norwegians at that time: Bjoergen, Johaug etc. Thanks to her strong psyche she was able to win difficult finishes with Bjoergen. Diggins is doing the same now - she gives 120%. This is the only way you can win with Norwegians. Apart from Pellegrino I don't see anyone in our team who has the ambition and the will to fight.

Diggins and Pellegrino have never had great physical conditions but their mental have always been on point. The entire American team is brave and ambitious. On the other hand the Italian team is physically weak and has no ambition. There is no visible will to fight and progress is born in the head- that`s says once Filippo Ganna.

For now just like a hobby for he.

What`s about Petra Vlhova? I read that she became to trening in snow. You have a more information?

How many points could she gain? 15? And that's always a risk of injury. I have no doubt, however, that Brignone is still our best slalom competitor, looking at the misery of the others, but since she doesn't train slalom much, it's not worth risking for a few/dozen more points.

Diggins is strong thanks to her determination and strong head. None of our young skiers have the right mentality. That's why they all fall in the quarter-finals, basically without a fight. In the USA, every athlete exceeds their maximum in the knockout phase. That's the difference. Someone who won the qualifications certainly had the strength to advance to at least the semi-finals, but the mentality is bad.

In the knockout phase everything went back to normal: one Pellegrino in the semi-finals and the rest out. What`s worse Pellegrino is no longer in such great shape and does not stand on the podium anymore. I don`t see any hope. Everything has been based on one Pellegrino for 15 years Other teams are introducing young players: USA, Switzerland, USA and we haven`t been able to stand on the podium in the women's team since 2011... Let Cassol stand on the podium 1-2 times at the beginning, even in 3rd place, then we can have hope. In alpine skiing it's the same, there's the great Brignone at 34, then Bassino around 30 and then there's the problem of advancing to 30. Look at the results of today's giant slalom.

It's true, but Colturi still only 1 person and for example in the men's slalom we have tragic results. In giant slalom again we last won many years ago. For example, Switzerland has a complete team, which has not only stars but also wide teams in every discipline + young successors. Scattolo is an option after 2026. For now, all that remains is to count on Vittozzi's return - apart from her, no one is able to regularly stand on the podium.

Alpine skiing also we have a lot of problems: the men's team is very weak and has been winning a few podiums a season for several years and the our best skier- Dominik Paris is 35. We still have a strong women's team but 3 of the 4 leaders are over 30 (Goggia, Brignone, Curtoni) and Bassino is 28. Another 2 years and we will have the same problem as the men's. There is basically no cross-country skiing without Pellegrino for many years, biathlon is based on 2 individuals with one of them has a 35 years. Vittozzi's injury was enough and we haven`t a single podium this season after 3 stages of the World Cup. As for 1 year to the home games the situation isn`t optimistic.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/lisa_vittozzi/ Come back Lisa and save our season in World Championship.

Bella ragazza

Today maybe there was poor wax servic, but Auchentaller loses in every race at the end, when younger competitors: Grotian, Richard, etc. are already running much faster. Vittozzi is 29 years old but unfortunately she got injured in November - if she recovers, she will still have a big chance for medals. Unfortunately, Wierer can only be a complement to relay teams.

The truth is that the entire Italian biathlon depends on one Vittozzi, who is not sure if she will return this season and her form is also questionable, because the rest of the Italian team is running poorly. Wierer is old and will never win again - she is running weaker and weaker and what is worse: she is shooting poorly. The rest of our team is running too weakly to count on any successes in the future. I don`t believe that Auchentaller or Comola will suddenly make a big progress in the run track, e.g. to the top 10, since the young French women are already much faster than them.

Auchentaller runs poorly, and her last rounds are awful - generally all Italian women have a problem with fitness and this is probably the problem of poor preparation before the season. If you don't run in the top 10, you can forget about successes apart from one individual race. Wierer and Vittozzi always ran in the top 10 during their prime. I don't see such potential in Auchentaller. Generally, both in biathlon and cross-country skiing Italian teams aren`t able to train a few good runners for many years and this is probably a systemic problem - look at France, for example: how many good runners have they been able to train in biathlon in recent years...

In basketball, after Banchero's refusal, they also can`t find anyone else when other countries naturalize players from the USA. The basketball and hockey federations are functioning terribly.