Sofia Goggia, the return to Beaver Creek: "My foot is fine. I have regained my self"

Beaver Creek (Colorado), December 9, 2024 – The nightmare then the hope. The effort, the training, and that feeling with speed “never lost”. Sofia Goggia “having removed the plates from her foot”, after the injury last February is sure: “I have regained the girl I was before”. The countdown has already begun for the return of the 32-year-old from Bergamo, next weekend in Beaver Creek, Colorado. After 8 months without skiing due to a fractured tibia and malleolus, she started training again first in Val Senales, then Soelden, completing it all with the longest American trip of her career. A whole month to get ready for the appointment with speed. And Sofia has no goals for now, she will enjoy the feeling of the races she has rediscovered and during the transfer to Colorado she will follow her beloved Atalanta. The dream of the championship is there, but it is still too early... like for the World Cup. 

Sofia, what is your body telling you these days?

"I had almost forgotten how important the Copper Mountain meeting was. I had the opportunity to do a qualitatively important job. I expected to be more scared, instead, once I got back on my skis and removed the initial 'rust' I discovered that the confidence with speed had remained. And I faced the curves as if nothing had happened".

What was different about this injury compared to the others?

"The biggest difficulty was going so many months (eight, ed.) without being able to put on skis. The fracture was very complicated, and the doctors had to work hard to put the pieces of bone back together. I couldn't even walk for 45 days in a season in which I was doing well. It was my most serious injury, but now it almost seems like nothing happened. It's something I don't think about anymore, beyond the nightmare and the hope I had in the months that followed. Once the plates were removed, I regained the girl I was before."

So has he found joy and confidence again?

"Yes, I have to say that the days when I felt best were those of joy, even though I'm not exactly the epitome of serenity. Several times in these months I dreamed of the fall and the bad feeling of the injury, but, once I put my skis back on, I also rediscovered the desire to have fun."

The tragic end of Matilde Lorenzi, then the serious injury of Michaela Shiffrin. In your opinion, where are we with the topic of safety on the track?

“They are very different issues, especially because one happened in training and the other in the World Cup. Some safety devices have been made mandatory, but federations can file a complaint if one of their athletes doesn't want to use them. There is a lack of basic regulation in this sense”.

And the program? Will he do all the speed races? The World Championships?

"Yes, I'll do them all, but for the World Championships I haven't set my sights on anything. It's a season that needs to be built. I have many fewer kilometers than the others who were able to ski in the fall. I don't have a goal tied to any result, I live day by day. In the meantime I watch Atalanta and go Beaver. On Wednesday I'll get back to breathing that thing that I've been missing, I'll be calm and relaxed with my tests, I'll have this approach for the whole season."