Matilde Lorenzi, parents’ moving remembrance: "She wanted to live 110%"

More than a year after the passing of Matilde Lorenzi, the blue skier was remembered at a meeting organized in Fossano by the ’cultural association ‘Piero Dardanello’ in collaboration with the local high school ‘Giovenale Ancina’ and the support of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano. Present at the special evening were the ’former member of the ‘Valanga Azzurra’ and RAI commentator, Paolo De Chiesa, and Matilde’s parents, Adolfo Lorenzi and Elena Rosa Cardinale, creators of the foundation that bears her name and pursues the’goal of safer skiing.

“Matilde was a normal girl– dad Adolfo and mom Elena told the students present at the event’and she had also struggled in school to balance sports and study. But she had great determination: when she left us, she had just graduated from high school and was already a top athlete. I urge all of you kids to set goals for yourselves and figure out how to achieve them. Only then will you have the satisfaction of having lived 110%, as Mati said. There can be no regrets” is the message sent to young people.

Dad Adolfo also told about the initiatives of the Matilde Lorenzi Foundation: “Exactly one month after the accident, we met with our counselors to establish the ‘Matilde Lorenzi’ Foundation. As a family, we felt that Mati’s story could not end like this, after all that she had given us. Our purpose is to develop projects related to the safety of alpine skiing and its athletes. We have found, despite ourselves, an almost entirely blank page to write: there have been and will be so many activities and projects in which to measure ourselves, day after day”.

The’former Blue De Chiesa remarked on the’importance of improving safety on skis: “Nowadays skiing has become very risky because of the materials. They have these sudden rejects so they become unmanageable and you can&#8217t recover from the ‘edge’: they&#8217re too aggressive. It can happen to anyone on any slope. One must, therefore, pay extreme attention to the characteristics of the tracks, the presence of nets along the edges and the presence of obstacles”.

“After these two unspeakable tragedies, finally, the Italian Federation has started talking about homologation of training tracks. Open heavens! Many ski clubs have protested that kids will not be able to train as before. There is too much exaltation in the youth sector, but finally a cry of alarm has been raised even from champions like Ghedina and Klammer”.

“We need to turn things around. Let&#8217s look at what has happened on the women&#8217s side: Bassino, Brignone, Gisin, Olympic champion Suter, Macuga… all injured. A mothballing that has to be stopped, for the good of skiing. I hope we want to go all the way”, De Chiesa hoped.