23.04.2010 - 09:02 h

It’s fine like this

Considering that I was close to missing this Olympics...

From the beginning, the feelings aroused by Vancouver were very positive for me; a curious fact perhaps not known to everyone is that Vancouver is consistently ranked among the top three most livable cities in the world. According to the 2007 report of Mercer Human Resource Consulting, for example, Vancouver was tied with Vienna as the third city in the world with the highest quality of life, after Zurich and Geneva.

Of course, we the athletes do not have many possibilities to benefit from this situation, as we were headed to our venues as soon as we got there. But it was immediately evident to us, how impeccably the Olympic village was organized, and how efficiently the security checks and logistics of such big number of athletes and teams were managed. And all of this in perfect harmony with great hospitality shown by all.

As for me, it was a miracle to be there, to face the challenges of the Olympic Games, among the participants of which I couldn’t imagine myself to be after the injury early in the season. Sure, if I look at the results based only on the weight of the medals I cannot say I’m satisfied, but compared to our results in Torino 2006, there is no doubt that our team in speed events improved, especially in superG, where we were close to having all four contending for the medals.

In the downhill race, with the late starting number I have suffered from the poor visibility and not the best snow conditions, I am used to a harder snow. I have strong regrets for the superG, where I had a good starting number, and up to the half of the race I was the fastest of all, but then inevitably I had to face fatigue and lack of preparation for the season, which I have spent trying only to regain fitness, but without the possibility to constantly train on skis, and this led me to an error which send me flying out of the course only a few gates from the finish line, when I was still in the run for the podium.

Trying to compensate for the error cost me a tremendous effort that I paid for at the end. It was a difficult passage on the slope, which puts some weight on skis; I have forced some weight too and ran into an unexpected hole, which threw me to the left, making me miss the optimal line.

In the downhill race of the super combined I have suffered from the accumulated fatigue from the days before, especially in the back and the leg. The fact remains that I was still able to “play” with the best with what preparation I had. The good performance in Wengen was continuing. In addition the competition made me forget all the troubles and recovery efforts from recent months. The most important result was to gain the confidence that I'm potentially back with the strongest. A good investment for the next season, in which I hope I will regain top form and good results.

Among other athletes, in addition to our amazing Razzoli, I greatly admired the tenacity and consistency of Aksel Svindal, who brought home medals in three disciplines; and the incredible determination of the ever young Bode Miller, who after speaking of retiring in the beginning of the season won the gold in super combined, bronze in downhill and silver in superG. Now that I am back home to rest and resume preparation for 2011 in my native mountains, I think about their results - and how they too had to overcome difficult moments physically and psychologically - and it fills me with a little confidence about the difficulties of this year. Recalling the recent past of Vancouver 2010 I feel that in the near future I will have new resources and time to contest for the best once again.



From Peter’s column in the SCI magazine’s March 2010 edition



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