Crans-Montana, Blue Women at the start in memory of the victims of the tragedy
Mourning on the arm in memory of the victims of the tragedy in Crans-Montana: it will be worn by the Italian women skiers who will compete this weekend in the Swiss resort where the terrible New Year’s Eve fire occurred. This is, as reported by the Ansa news agency, to remember the 40 victims of the disaster in which six young Italians also lost their lives and caused more than a hundred injuries, some of them very serious.
While there is no shortage of controversy in Italy over Jacques Moretti’s release from prison, other initiatives in remembrance of the New Year’s victims have also been planned by organizers: among them the absence of sponsors on the track and the cancellation of side events.
There are eight Italians registered for the women’s World Cup speed double event in the Swiss resort (downhill Friday, Jan. 30 at 10 a.m., super-giant Saturday, Jan. 31 at 11 a.m.), the last races before the Olympic break. They are Federica Brignone, Elena Curtoni, Nadia Delago, Nicol Delago, Sofia Goggia, Roberta Melesi, Laura Pirovano and Asja Zenere.
The 2027 World Championships will be held on the Swiss track: Brignone won on four occasions (always in the combined in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020) and was on the podium a total of nine times, Sofia Goggia won the downhill in 2023, twice in 2021 and 2019, and was third in 2022, Marta Bassino was ahead of them all in the downhill in 2024, Elena Curtoni was second in the super-giant in 2017 and third in the downhill in 2021.
The Swiss team will be the first to win the downhill in 2023.
Pietro Costanzo, the uncle of Chiara Costanzo, the 16-year-old girl who died in the Crans-Montana fire, in recent days made a heartfelt appeal to Fisi, the Italian Winter Sports Federation, which has now been chaired by Flavio Roda since 2012. “Next week there are ski races in Crans-Montana: no athletes present. It would be a beautiful form of protest, of outrage”, he told, interviewed by TgR Lombardy, to whose microphones he also said he was not very confident of being able to obtain justice for the New Year’s Eve tragedy.
