Italian ski stars Brignone and Goggia to miss start of World Cup season

MILAN (AP) — Top Italian skiers Federica Brignone and Sofia Goggia will not be in Sölden when the World Cup season starts in Austria on Oct. 24 and are unsure when they can compete again.

Brignone stunned the sport when she won two Olympic gold medals — in super-G and giant slalom — at the Milan Cortina Winter Games in February, just 10 months after breaking multiple bones in her left leg.

The 36-year-old skier then underwent another operation at the end of August to remove a metal plate and screws from the leg because of persistent pain and discomfort.

“It was something I had to do also for my day-to-day life, to feel better,” Brignone said on Friday. “Now I’m back to doing physiotherapy every day … but I’m happy with how it’s going, it’s definitely easier than last year.

“I have no idea when I’ll be back, I haven’t even really put on skis since February. I did two days on the glacier (in July) but I wouldn’t even call that skiing, I really struggled. But now, I’m better. The first aim is to put on skis again and then I will be able to understand when I can come back to racing or at least do serious training.”

Goggia, who claimed bronze in the downhill in Cortina to add to her previous tally of an Olympic gold and a silver medal, has been battling two viral infections since a training camp in Argentina.

That affected her nervous system, causing her severe pain as well as making it difficult at times to even talk or walk down the stairs — and she also said she couldn’t even remember how to jump.

“I was very scared when I had these indescribable pains, without even understanding where they came from,” Goggia said. “I was very scared by these excruciating pains that I had even at night, turning in bed.

“Then when you get back to Italy and you feel very sluggish, you’re struggling with stairs, you’re slow with works, you’re slow with movements – I knew there was something wrong, but at least the initial assessments excluded anything serious.”

Goggia — who holds four World Cup downhill titles and is also the reigning super-G champion — is primarily a speed specialist. The season begins with seven technical races, three of which are in Europe, before another four in North America.

The first downhills and super-G are scheduled for Dec. 11-13 in Beaver Creek before returning to Europe.

Brignone and Goggia are aiming to train at Copper Mountain. Brignone will almost certainly miss the North American races, while Goggia is hoping to make her comeback then.

“That’s the idea,” she said. “I only started training last week because the two weeks before I was back and forth to hospital and I was really tired, weak and still had strong symptoms. So they told me to rest more.”

Goggia has had to deal with several serious injuries in her career, but said that coping with this illness was much more difficult as she didn’t have “a biological healing time.”

“So the only goal I’m setting for myself right now is to get back to being clear-headed, coordinated, and mentally present, with my neurological system fully back to normal. I’m in the final stages of this virus and there are still some lingering aftereffects but I’ve made tremendous progress.”

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