Michela Moioli breaks taboo: she is world gold in snowboard cross
Michela Moioli triumphs at the St. Moritz World Championships in snowboard cross and enters the myth of Italian sport for good: after winning three World Cups and the 2018 Olympic title, the 29-year-old from Bergamo, Alzano Lombardo, hit in Engadine the only title still missing in her enormous career.
And she did it in the culmination of a season that was taking on complicated contours: on the most improtant day of the winter, however, Moioli was able to find grit, determination, technique and courage to put herself ahead of everyone and beat Britain’s Charlotte Bankes by a whisker in the challenge for gold, with France’s Julia Pereira De Sousa forced to settle for bronze.
Michela did nothing wrong in St. Moritz. Right from yesterday’s qualifying round, closed with the second fastest time overall. Today it was a winning streak: first in the quarters, first in the semifinals and especially first in the final. A decisive act that was anything but easy to interpret and read, with Pereira De Sousa trying to escape from the start. Moioli sewed up the tear, and then threaded Bankes into the final straight to win a resounding rainbow title.
The shoulder-to-shoulder finish, the wait for the photo finish response, and then the unbridled joy and the rush to embrace technical director Cesare Pisoni: these are all the emotions that erupted after the realization that she had conquered the only result she still lacked.
For Michela, this is her seventh world medal overall: before today, the Italian had stood on the podium on six occasions, four individually (three bronzes and one silver) and twice in the team event, with second-place finishes in 2019 and 2021. For Italy, this is the second rainbow title in SBX history after Luca Matteotti’s in 2015.
“I have no words. We were fast, we trained a lot – said Michela Moioli – But after the bump in training I didn’t think I would become world champion. It’s really incredible, I just want to thank everyone. I can’t believe I managed to become world champion.”
A fall at the start of the quarterfinals instead ended the path of Lorenzo Sommariva, who was ready to go through the round of 16 in the wake of Australia’s Lambert; out in the first round was Omar Visintin, third in his own battery behind France’s Chollet and Bozzolo.
Final success went to Canada’s Eliot Grondin, who got the better of Loan Bozzolo and Austria’s Alessandro Hämmerle in the final. Tomorrow in St. Moritz the team event is scheduled: appointment starting at 11 a.m.
