Lara Gut-Behrami adores Cortina d’Ampezzo

The Ticino announced on Monday that she planned to continue her career until the 2026 Olympics to be able to ski in Cortina d’Ampezzo, on a route which filled her with happiness and success. But why does this track suit him so well? Experts respond.

The 2026 Olympics website says of this track that it “makes Italy proud in the world”, which is no small thing, in a country which invented the Beautiful manner and the pardule. We call her “Olympia delle Tofane”, and it is in particular for her that Lara Gut-Behrami now plans to continue her career for one more season. While she had announced that the 2024/2025 financial year would be her last, she revealed on Monday that she aimed to participate in the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, in particular in order to return to a track that she loves, but where everything had started off badly.

Because the first time that Lara Gut-Behrami put her spatulas at Cortina d’Ampezzo, a very chic resort located two hours’ drive north of Venice, she fell after forty seconds of racing despite a successful start. To journalists who questioned her in the arrival area, the 16 year and 8 month old girl replied:

The words of Lara Gut-Behrami let us guess what happened next: free in spirit and tone, she would not hesitate to say what she thinks, would never be satisfied with just participating, and would become formidable on this “Olimpia delle Tofane » who had sublimated his qualities from his first participation. Because a single mistake that day was not enough to erase the general impression, and this impression would gain in depth with time and the results.

The skier during a photoshoot at 16 years old.Image: KEYSTONE

Since her debut in 2008 until today, the Ticino has made 40 starts on the famous Italian track and achieved 7 victories (11 podiums in total). She was also eliminated three times, including once in 2017, after hitting a door head-on in super-G, but history mainly remembers that on her favorite track, she won at least once in each of his three favorite disciplines: super-G (4 successes), giant (2) and downhill (1).

“Competing 40 races means going down the slope a hundred times if you add the training and the two giant rounds,” recalls ex-skier Florence Masnada. Lara Gut-Behrami therefore learned to know this track by heart. “Besides, the descent is always the same. Season after season, the doors don’t move,” insists the double Olympic medalist, as if to underline the automatisms acquired by the Swiss over the years.

But it is not only these landmarks that have allowed the Ticino to shine. The geography of the track has a lot to do with its excellent results. “It is a descent that is both technical and fast, therefore corresponding to its two main qualities”summarizes Patrice Morisod, ex-coach of the skier from Comano.

Lara Gut-Behrami in the Dolomites.Image: AP

There are bumps, slope breaks, a schuss at more than 130 km/h and these wide, high-speed curves which have made the reputation of the 33-year-old skier. “She is very good at anticipating, working with the field,” underlines Hugues Ansermoz, who also accompanied the Swiss in her career. She has an incredible ability to make turns properly behind a bump.”

And if the weather comes to her aid, Lara Gut-Behrami can become downright unplayable. “Cortina is a track that can get tougher depending on the conditions, and offer one of the most difficult descents of the season, in which Lara can show off her technical qualities,” points out Florence Masnada.

But the other advantage of the transalpine route is what it doesn’t have: endless flat sections on which you have to demonstrate sliding qualities which are not those of the native of Lugano. “With her 58 kg and her size, she has no chance on the flat”his mother, Gabriela, had said one day. “If the track is not steep and the snow is not hard, it is fatal for it,” admitted Hugues Ansermoz.

There is indeed a snow sports area in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but it has nothing to do with the long Lake Louise tunnel. It is located at the end of the course, and the speed of the skiers is determined by the entire previous technical part. Concretely, this means that if the Ticino woman does not make any mistakes on the top, she has little risk of losing time on the flat.

Cortina by night.Image: E+

However, to be as fair as possible on your skis, you have to go downhill and accumulate the kilometers. It is for this reason that the first speed events often serve as adjustments for women who do not always have the chance to spend their summer in South America or on European glaciers. The annual Cortina meeting takes place later in the season, usually in the second half of January, and coincides with the skiers’ peak form.a few weeks before the Olympics or major championships. They have had time to get used to the long skis and they are in full possession of their means. Only pure talent separates them, and Lara Gut-Behrami has no shortage of that.

It’s a little more difficult to beat each season and that’s normal: “When you find a track on which you are used to performing well, there is a certain euphoria”notes Patrice Morisod. A feeling that Florence Masnada has tasted and which she shares.

Last season, Lara Gut-Behrami had too many benchmarks and certainties to panic when she saw her competitors fall in turn in Cortina. Questioned by the SRF after her 2nd place, she explained that “if you don’t start calmly, you end up finding yourself in the net”, emphasizing in one sentence all the virtues of confidence in high-level sport .

It is on this track that the Ticino woman notably won the world champion titles in super-G and giant slalom in 2021, as well as third place in downhill. And it is also here that she hopes to shine for what will be the last Olympic Games of her formidable career, and perhaps, then, the “Queen of the Dolomites” will not just be the nickname of a ski resort.