- - Host Italy has new skiing star for Olympics and he's gone from tragedy to triumph

ANDREW DAMPF January 26, 2026 at 7:19 PM

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1 / 5Austria World Cup Alpine SkiingItaly's Giovanni Franzoni celebrates on podium winning a men's alpine ski World Cup downhill, in Kitzbuehel, Austria, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

Giovanni Franzoni just won the “Super Bowl of skiing.” Soon, he’ll be chasing Olympic gold — on home snow, no less.

The breakout star of the Italian ski team, with the Milan Cortina Winter Games opening next week, Franzoni is quickly coming to grips with his newfound status.

A victory in the downhill on the legendary Streif course in Kitzbühel, Austria, over the weekend — the race described as skiing’s Super Bowl — followed his first World Cup win a week earlier in Wengen, Switzerland.

Franzoni had never even been on the World Cup podium until he finished third in a super-G in Val Gardena last month.

“I didn’t expect to be in this position,” he said. “I knew I could do well but there’s a big difference between believing it and doing it. Now I’m trying to handle it all — the media attention, the physical part, the mental part … I just want to enjoy the Olympics. I know that I can do well, so I don’t see any reason to heap expectations onto myself.”

‘A promise to someone in paradise’

Franzoni, after all, isn’t skiing just for himself. He’s also racing in memory of his former roommate and teammate, Matteo Franzoso, who died after a crash in preseason training in Chile in September that opened a debate on safety in the sport.

When Franzoni won in Kitzbühel, he looked to up the sky on the winner’s podium and dedicated the victory to Franzoso, who he had shared a room with at the Austrian resort a year earlier on his first trip to the Hahnenkamm event.

“I made a promise to someone in paradise,” Franzoni said. “It’s a mix of emotions that I have a hard time describing.”

Franzoni's victory reduced Odermatt to tears

Franzoni’s victory Saturday relegated overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt to second place, and left the Swiss standout in tears on the podium after again failing to win the Kitzbühel downhill.

“I was almost upset seeing him like that,” Franzoni said. "I understand how much he wanted to win that race and how many years he’s been fighting for it. But I don’t think it’s a tragedy for him, considering all the races he’s won.”

Odermatt won the super-G in Kitzbühel on Friday for a second year. But he’s been racing in “Kitz” for eight years; whereas Franzoni won the Kitzbühel downhill on his second try, at age 24.

Franzoni claimed 5 medals at junior worlds

Unlike many professional skiers, Franzoni did not grow up in the mountains.

He comes from Manerba del Garda on the shore of Lake Garda near the city of Brescia.

But he and his twin brother, Alessandro, quickly took to skiing at nearby Ponte di Legno and Madonna di Campiglio.

While his brother eventually stopped competing and became a ski instructor instead, Giovanni showed his promise by claiming three golds, a silver and a bronze at the world junior championships in 2021 and 2022.

Franzoni’s rise was slowed, though, when he had a season-ending fall in a super-G at Wengen in 2023 that resulted in thigh surgery.

Now he’s catching back up to skiers like Franjo von Allmen, the Swiss racer who is the same age and won the world title in downhill last year.

When Franzoni won gold in the downhill at the junior worlds in Panorama, British Columbia, in 2022, Von Allmen finished second.

Franzoni racing in home region at Olympics

While it’s a three-hour drive away, Franzoni’s hometown of Manerba is located in the same region (Lombardy) as Bormio, where men’s skiing at the Olympics will be contested.

Franzoni has never finished better than 17th in World Cup races held in Bormio. But he’s clearly aiming for much higher now.

A victory in the men’s downhill on the first full day of the Olympics, Feb. 7, would make him the first Italian man to claim the prestigious honor since Zeno Colò took gold 74 years ago at the 1952 Oslo Games.

What’s more is that Franzoni can become only the fourth skier to win the Kitzbühel and Olympic downhills in the same year after Toni Sailer in 1956, Franz Klammer in 1976 and Beat Feuz in 2022.

Franzoni lost to Sinner in junior ski race

As a junior racer, Franzoni was once beaten by tennis standout and former youth skier Jannik Sinner.

While they didn’t know each other back then, Franzoni and Sinner recently got in touch.

“I wrote him on Instagram after news of that old race came out. He complimented me and encouraged me a lot and even gave me his phone number,” Franzoni said. “The fact that he wrote me means I must have done something big.”

For the record, Sinner won that 2009 giant slalom in San Sicario for racers born in 2001 and Franzoni finished 12th, four seconds behind.

Now, Sinner and Franzoni are both winning.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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Source: “AOL Sports”