Lara Colturi to represent Albania at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics

She will not leave the Albanian national team, and with it she will compete in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Lara Colturi, an 18-year-old world-class skiing talent now taking her final exams, will not wear the blue uniform, at least in the medium term.

The Albanian Federation made it official yesterday with a post. Apparently it seems like an anomaly since the very young athlete was born in Piedmont and has always trained on the snows of Sestriere. But in reality it is since 2022 that the skier has chosen to compete for Albania. And in the season just gone by, she achieved results that put her among the best interpreters of the technical specialties: two second places in the World Cup, one in slalom in Gurgl and one in giant in Kranjska Gora, and a third place in the giant in Are.

In recent months, work has been done to bring Lara, daughter of the 2002 Olympic gold medalist in super-G, Daniela Ceccarelli, and coach Alessandro Colturi, back home. But it didn't come to fruition. In view of Milan-Cortina, to avoid a year of competitive stop for the athlete, the change of nationality should have arrived today, but yesterday's statement from Tirana closed the matter.

The choice of Albania in 2022 is linked to a question of opportunities and regulations. The family wanted to follow the girl directly, or with a private team, which however is not permitted by the federal regulations in Italy. Hence the choice to opt for another nation in order to also allow her to compete immediately in the World Cup.

Lara's family, the family that follows and trains her, thanked yesterday the Albanian federation and the "high institutions" of Tirana for having invested in their daughter and for the "managerial freedom" in the path with "the family and the team"