Marta Bassino is smiling again

More than five months after her serious injury on October 22, Marta Bassino is finally back on skis. The champion from Borgo San Dalmazzo, in fact, held a rehabilitation session on Monday on her home slope in Limone Piemonte, in the province of Cuneo, accompanied by technical director Gianluca Rulfi and coach Thierry Marguerettaz. The 30-year-old Italian racer took a few laps to regain confidence on skis and will continue her work on Tuesday, March 31.

Marta Bassino had fractured the tibial plateau of her left leg during a training session in Val Senales, on the eve of the season opener in Sölden. The injury had also involved the medial collateral ligament and meniscus, forcing her to miss the entire competitive year, including the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The return on skis now represents a key step on the path to full recovery.

A class of 1996, Marta Bassino boasts two world golds in her career (parallel slalom in Cortina 2021 and Super-G in Courchevel-Meribel 2023) and one bronze, also at the World Cup level (team race in Åre 2019). In World Cup, she was the winner of the specialty ranking in the giant slalom at the end of the 2020-2021 season, while in the overall ranking her best result was fifth place in the previous year. Also in CdM, she has won 7 victories, 9 runner-up finishes and 14 third places.

Of the World Cup successes, as many as six have come in giant slalom: in November 2019 in Killington, in October 2020 in Sölden, in December 2020 in Courchevel, on January 16 and 17, 2021 in both races in Kranjska Gora and in December 2022 in Sestriere. The other victory came in downhill, however, on Feb. 17, 2024 in Crans-Montana.

In the all-time women’s alpine skiing rankings, Marta Bassino is in sixth position behind Federica Brignone with 37 victories, Sofia Goggia with 29, Deborah Compagnoni with 16, Isolde Kostner with 15 and Karen Putzer with 8 successes. Calculating giant slalom alone, however, she is third behind Brignone (17) and Compagnoni (13).