"As small as that gap sounds, it was an enormous margin in a race where there were only six-hundredths of a second between the three women who finished behind her; Sweden's Sara Hector, Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund, and Brignone's Italian teammate Lara Della Mea. The gap between Brignone and second place was the same as that between second and 15th."
"I crossed the finish line and I said: I don't know if it's enough,' Brignone said. Then I heard the crowd and I said: Oh, maybe yes.' Then I turned around and I saw number one. She wasn't the only one who heard them. The grandstands at the finish line were bouncing with overjoyed Italian fans, and the noise must have carried all the way across the other side of the valley."
"I have too many emotions. I can't believe it, this is just crazy, Brignone said. My attitude was that I would be happy just to be here. That was already an achievement. Just to be back as an athlete. Three hundred days ago, Brignone could not say whether she would ever again be able to walk normally, let alone race such as this."
Federica Brignone captured her second Olympic gold in three days by winning the giant slalom in Cortina by just over six-tenths of a second. That margin overwhelmed a race in which only six-hundredths of a second separated the three athletes directly behind her, including Sweden's Sara Hector and Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund, who tied for silver alongside Italy's Lara Della Mea. The victory unfolded at L'Olympia delle Tofane before ecstatic Italian fans and prompted emotional reactions from competitors and Brignone. The result completed a remarkable comeback after a severe knee injury and multiple surgeries less than a year earlier.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]