Milan Cortina 2026, Kristian Ghedina speaks out on Federica Brignone and Sofia Goggia

Kristian Ghedina is one of the new additions to Eurosport’s team of commentators for Milan Cortina 2026: on HBO Max and discovery+ 865 hours of live races, enriched by three daily studio appointments from the main Olympic venues, for a total of more than 1,000 hours. The downhill racer, originally from Cortina d’Ampezzo, granted an exclusive interview to Sportal.it on the sidelines of the presentation of full coverage of the Five Circles event held in the Lombard capital. And at which he showed up wearing a magnificent sweater depicting a race bib. “Every time I put it on I get a lot of compliments, because it–s really nice,” he smiles. ’There&#8217s pride in being from Cortina, we had the first Winter Olympics, this year again, and it&#8217s a great honor. Cortina is the fifth place where we have had the Winter Olympics twice”.

“What do I expect from Federica Brignone? She’s been good, she made it back, she worked hard. She wanted to try at all costs, as I think every athlete does, it&#8217s just an inner strength that a professional has that wants to get back as soon as possible. She made it, she proved she could compete. And now the responsibility is even greater, because knowing that she can compete for a medal while having this injury … it is very hard for her mentally. I hope she can find the best conditions, that it will be a good day, that there will be good weather and that the track will be good”.

“Surprises among the Italians? Paris and Goggia are the people you have to focus on. Now there&#8217s Franzoni, who is a young man and has all eyes on him, I hope he can get results and bring home the medal. Then Mattia Casse, he likes the Stelvio track and it would be nice if he too could win a medal”.

“Will I be good or inflexible on commentary? I don&#8217t know if I&#8217ll be good, in the sense not good toward the boys or Italy or with those who go down, but good for my abilities, because it&#8217s very difficult to comment on a ski race, the times are very tight, you have one minute, you have to be concise, explicit and concrete. It’s very difficult with the gaps reduced to a minimum to comment on the athlete, whether he does well or does badly, and to make people understand what is happening in front of the screen”.