Sofia Goggia full-circle: from injury, to Federica Brignone, to Jannik Sinner
Sofia Goggia full-circle: from injury, to Federica Brignone, to Jannik Sinner
The whole web is talking about Sofia Goggia’s interview with Sette, the weekly supplement of Corriere della Sera, for the cover photo in which there are a couple of clearly wrong retouchings.
No one for’s talking about the actual interview, that is, what the 31-year-old Bergamasque outfielder said, starting with her latest injury, the tibia fracture that cost her the last month and a half of racing, and continuing with Federica Brignone and Jannik Sinner. Here are some of her statements from the very long interview.
"È it was hard to talk about it (about the injury, ed.), still today I get the magone. I was serene, and for me who is always restless, è strange. To associate Sofia Goggia with serenity è è an oxymoron. I hadn’t stopped yet, I was still crawling in the snow and I felt that I no longer had my foot attached to my leg. I had no pain, the boot was a vice. I got down on my knees, moved my left foot in front and tried to pull my right. But nothing, I fell back".
"I had transcribed dates, places, specialtiesà (of all the seasonal races, ed). After each descent I would mark the points accumulated. It hurt like hell to thunder back after the hospital, close the door and stare at that calendar that will never again be filled from Garmisch on. I still haven't had the strength to put an X on those empty rectangles. I know I must find the strength to peel off that paper to go further".
"I have already seen myself put my skis back on after surgery. This è the seventh one. If he can have a good ankle recovery coupled with good physical work, the important thing will be to focus day by day to recover on the track as well. It will not be easy, the foot will need a major adjustment in the boot, the fracture è very low: I have a plate on the neck of the ankle, and when this è bent and the ski vibrates, the joint is affected".
Talking about the scar she showed on Instagram quoting a quote from Elena Fanchini, her teammate who passed away in February 2023 when she was only 37 years old, and who said, "If this è the plan God has reserved for me, all I can do is open my arms wide, welcome it and accept it”, Sofia says, "She had said it when her tumor came back. She was a girl of genuine, almost moving genuineness. I can't believe she's gone. È as if I could feel her, her memory è vivid. Elena è managed to say this sentence at such a difficult time, I took strength from her words and made them my own".
The interviewer returns to Federica Brignone, who from the stage of the Sanremo Festival did not address a greeting to her despite the fact that Sofia had been injured a few days ago, and asks her if she was disappointed: "No. I è regret that there was more talk about her not remembering me than about her presence on that stage as a representative of Italian skiing. It è s not easy for an athlete to be able to keep one thing in mind when you have a tight schedule and the excitement of the Ariston. For me, his was not è a lack".
Jannik Sinner also began his adventure in sports on skis, then switched to tennis: “Like him, I alternated between boots and racquet as a child. To say more, if my tennis instructor had been more convincing than my ski instructor, I might have chosen racket and ball"
There’è a track on which the men compete that Sofia would like to compete on: "Kitzbuhel, but not in the conditions in which the men ski. I wouldn’t be able to approach the gate. Forò it would be nice to try some passes". And by the way, her dream as a little girl has already achieved it: “That little girl did not know who she wanted to be, but she knew what she wanted to achieve. She wanted to win the Olympics and be a champion skier (she wrote this in an essay when she was nine years old, ed.). Thinking about what that child dreamed of, I say I won more than twice as much as she could have wished for, but less than half as much as she could have won if I had had an injury-free career".
"Every day I am afraid. My motto è only the brave. But the reality è è that even though I let out the idea that I fear nothing, I confront fear every day. Forò I also believe it is a very important tool: if you crush it you go into unconsciousness, if you let it guide you you you can make it constructive and not paralyzing. The thought of getting hurt again terrifies me. If I want to excel again, I will have to push. And pushing can è involve risks, è something you have to take into account. But now is not è the time to think about that. “My future? Before the injury I thought I would also do the 2027 World Championships in Crans-Montana. I will be 34 years old, let's see. I don't have a very clear idea about my future. Of course, if Fiorello asked me to do Viva Rai2 with him, I would sign on the fly!”.
