The men’s World Cup speed team is traveling to continue their preparations for the season that culminates in the Olympic Games in South Korea. In fact, the group is preparing to fly to Chile to continue training on the slopes of South America. First, however, is a stage on the snow of Zermatt, where Emanuele Buzzi, Christof Innerhofer, Dominik Paris, Peter Fill and Matteo Marsaglia will be until 30 August, with Davide Cazzaniga, Nicolò Molteni and Alexander Prast joining for the occasion.
Alberto Ghidoni, the coach leading the team, is tracking the situation at this important stage of the summer preparations. “The trip to Chile will be divided into two main sections,” says the coach from Brescia. “The first group of Werner Heel, Henri Battilani, Guglielmo Bosca, Matteo De Vettori and Florian Schieder will depart on Thursday 24 August towards the 3000 metres of La Parva, where they will take part in two descents and a super-G valid for the South America Cup. There are significant FIS (International Ski Federation) points up for grabs there, which may be useful during the season. Around 8 September, the guys will head down to Santiago in Chile for a couple of days, before then heading to Valle Nevado from 11 to 21 September, where they will compete in other speed tests on the same circuit in El Colorado. In Valle Nevado, they will find Christof Innerhofer, Dominik Paris, Peter Fill, Matteo Marsaglia and Emanuele Buzzi, who will have come down there in the meantime. This second group will remain there until 20 September, then we will decide where to head for another ten days depending on the weather conditions; however, we definitely won’t be in Portillo, where there is no snow.”
The schedule in Valle Nevado will include giant slalom sessions, and long skis will be used in the second part of the gathering. “The guys are all doing quite well,” Ghidoni continues. “This year we skied well into spring, so we decided not to do too much on the glaciers in the summer, where the heat meant that conditions were not ideal anyway. The two meetings on the Stelvio in late July and mid-August were enough, we did some good athletic training in Formia, and we will perfect some technical details in Zermatt over the next few days.”
Ghidoni is analysing the state of individual athletes. “Innerhofer skied so much in the spring, and in July. He’s feeling quite good. His knees and back are under control, so he should continue on track. Fill is having a bit of trouble in his lower back area; we are monitoring the situation, but it shouldn’t be anything serious. Paris doesn’t like to ski too much in summer, but when he starts you have to force him to hold back. Marsaglia will do three days in Zermatt. Of course, the preparations are definitely not perfect, but his knee has not swollen up more, which is a great sign. It’s a shame for Casse, who will miss the very first part of the season, but we’re counting on having him back to his best for January, the latter part of which coincides with the most important part of the season. And the youth team is also working hard.”
