Italy look to Rocca

ByEurosport

Published 21/02/2006 at 23:07 GMT

As if Giorgio Rocca needed any more pressure. Coming into the Turin Olympics as Italy's main medal hope of the slopes, the slalom World Cup leader must now also save the host nation's Alpine skiing pride after a dismal showing by his compatriots.

With home advantage and familiar snow, Italy has failed to win a single medal in either the men's or women's Alpine events and, with just three technical races remaining, the pressure is really on the photogenic Rocca.

So much so, that former Olympic champion Alberto Tomba - the last Italian man to win an Olympic Alpine ski medal 12 years ago - felt the need to urge his compatriots to back off.

"Leave him be, don't make him feel like the country's saviour," 'La Bomba', the 1988 and 1992 giant slalom gold medallist and 1988 slalom champion who also won a slalom silver in 1994, told reporters.

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ALPINE SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2006 Tomba

Image credit: Imago

"It's not right that he should have to do it all."

Rocca knows only too well what he has to do under the floodlights in Saturday's slalom.

Winner of five World Cup slaloms in a row in the run-up to the Games, he is the only Italian skier who appears capable of matching the likes of Austrian Benjamin Raich and challenging for gold.

His fifth place in the men's combined remains the best result by an Italian Alpine skier at the Games.

RESCUE

In the men's speed events, only Patrick Staudacher finished in the top 10. In the three women's races so far, Lucia Recchia's eighth place in super-G is the highest placing.

The 2002 Olympic super-G champion Daniele Ceccarelli finished 31st on a San Sicario slope only minutes from her mountainside home.

Isolde Kostner, the downhill silver medallist in Salt Lake City, did not even get to the Games after revealing last month she was pregnant.

The only Italian to catch the eye in Monday's super-G was Nadia Fanchini, whose sister Elena won the season's opening World Cup downhill, when she made an astonishing rescue from almost crashing out on her backside.

"Giant flop, skiing on its knees," read a headline in Tuesday's Corriere dello Sport after the men's giant slalom ended without a single Italian in the top 10.

"Italy skiing on trial," declared Tuttosport.

ALPINE SKIING 2005-2006 Torino 2006 Giorgio Rocca Italy

Image credit: Reuters

Italian newspapers commented bitterly that Massimiliano Blardone, who came 11th, was the only Italian winner because he had bet 50 euros on Raich to win the gold.

The days of Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni, winner of three gold medals and a silver between 1992 and 1998, are long gone.

Italy has no woman ranked in the top 10 in either slalom or giant slalom and only Rocca among the elite on the men's side.

"We are not competitive. Between us and the Austrians, there is an abyss," said Tomba.

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