Federica Brignone’s bitterness: "Injury stole what I love"

Federica Brignone has made it: the skier from Valle d’Aosta, winner of the overall World Cup in women’s alpine skiing last season, managed to return in time from serious injury to participate in the Olympics in Milan Cortina, the big event she absolutely did not want to miss.

Sportal

Brignone after a fall during the Italian championships in Val di Fassa got a multifragmentary compound fracture of the tibial plateau and the head of the fibula of the left leg, as well as ligament damage: a very serious injury, from which she managed to recover just in time, but with great sacrifices.

The Italian athlete explained what it cost her in an interview with Corriere della Sera: “The good part of my life came before the injury. I hope to forget about this phase quickly, although forgetting is not possible. And I hope not to relive such a thing”.

“The’injury stole my leg to do all the things I like – he continued -. And it stole a lot of my free time. Running, playing volleyball or tennis. I always have to control what I’m doing, I struggle and feel pain. Even with nondownhill skis: this year I have never done ski mountaineering, never done cross-country. The injury has taken me away from all the sports I love”.

Brignone also talked about his expectations for the Olympics: “In Milan Cortina I will be an outsider. I haven&#8217t decided which races to do yet. For sure the giant and the super-G. It is impossible to know how many chances I have. If I were the one from last year I would say: ‘If I got two heats right I could win’. But I would still have to get them right, what with the pressure and all”.

The Aosta Valley skier has no regrets, however: “Never, I live in the here and now. It is not a motto, but a way of life. It saved me from too much pressure, from things bigger than me, especially last year. We need the past to learn, the future to have motivation. But you cannot live in either one, only in the present”.