Federica Brignone enchanting with her new boyfriend James Mbaye
Federica Brignone spoke to Sky Sport microphones at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid. “From the injury to the Games: I returned to skiing to challenge myself,” said the double gold medalist from Milan Cortina 2026, “I fought against the pain, now I only think about healing myself. The Aosta Valley native was among the stars of the Laureus evening, where she attended the ceremony with partner James Mbaye. The couple dined in the company of Bebe Vio and Jannik Sinner, also a candidate for Sportsman of 2025. Amidst chit-chat and moments of relaxation, the evening then concluded with a return home. Thirty-six years old, originally from Senegal, where he spent the early years of his life until his teenage years, Mbaye is 196 centimeters tall and studied at Itis in Rimini. His past also includes a basketball career. He is now an accomplished model.
The Sportsman of the Year award went to Carlos Alcaraz, leaving Sinner empty-handed despite an outstanding season. Still, the South Tyrolean wanted to emphasize the value of the evening: “I am very happy to be here. This award is given only once a year, it is almost a unique moment. To be nominated at this event you have to have had an incredible season. Then it is a great opportunity to get to know other athletes, talk to them and maybe even learn something from them.” Among the most curious moments of the evening, Sinner discovered an unseen Novak Djokovic as the host of the ceremony, “I saw him earlier at the hotel and we talked a little bit. It’s definitely a different thing, but one that he really enjoys since he can speak very well in so many languages. I think he’s the perfect presenter for such an evening.”
For Brignone, her presence at the Laureus represents yet another chapter in a story she has already told with great excitement in previous weeks. At the Media Day of the Italian Winter Sports Federation held in Milan, the champion from Valle d’Aosta had retraced her Olympic journey with words full of awe: “Honestly, my path has been hard, difficult and terrible even and never could I have dreamed of climbing twice on an Olympic podium. The more I look at the pictures, the more I wonder how I did it, these are great memories.” The priority now remains recovery: “I am always in physical therapy. It’s hard and I try to give time to recovery, that’s my goal. It will be day by day again, it’s bad not to have definite plans, it’s very tough mentally, but at least in this round I don’t have crutches and I can walk on my own.”
On the private life front, the relationship with Mbaye had already emerged in recent weeks, after Brignone announced to Verissimo the end of her affair with her previous partner Davide. “I have a new story and I am very happy,” the champion had declared, while maintaining her usual confidentiality about the name of the lucky man. A discretion also appreciated by her mother Ninna Quario, who had commented, “She has never exposed her things too much, even all the previous boyfriends she has had she has never put them out in the open, and I think she will continue to do so, hoping to be able to have a normal life.”
Bebe Vio, the third protagonist of the Madrid dinner, is also going through a phase of great transition. The Paralympic champion recently announced the end of her foil career to embark on a new adventure in athletics, with the goal of running the 100 meters. “I never said it out loud: it’s over with fencing, I can’t do it physically anymore,” she had revealed as a guest on Che Tempo Che Fa. An evening, that of the Laureus, which brought together around a table some of the most extraordinary sports stories of the recent Italian scene.
