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It has been ready since Sunday. Lara Gut-Behrami (32) is the new overall World Cup winner. For the second time after 2016. She still has to wait a few days before she can receive the big ball.
So that the ski crystal ball already knows who its new owner is, Blick let her tell a few stories about Gut-Behrami. For this purpose, we traveled to Ticino with the ball – it is one of the three that Vreni Schneider won in her career – in a specially made suitcase. When the weather is nice, the Swiss Sonnenstube welcomes us. As soon as we come out of the Gotthard Tunnel, we make our first stop.
“It was foreseeable”
Pesciüm is the name of our first stop. It is the ski area of Airolo, which can be reached in less than five minutes by gondola. Here on more than 30 kilometers of ski slopes, Gut-Behrami laid the foundation for her masterpiece. And actually, on this beautiful ski day in March, there are still one or two people who remember the little girl from back then. Not the ski lift workers – on this day they are mainly Italian seasonal workers – but ski instructors such as Fausto Lucchini and Marco Puricelli.
“As a child you could see how talented she was and what great willpower she had,” Puricelli says. It was foreseeable that she would become a big one, he adds. Lucchini, in turn, still remembers the days when young Lara trained diligently here with her father Pauli. “They were always on the slopes at half past seven in the morning. When we arrived there with the ski school between 9:30 and 10 a.m., she had already completed her training in the snow.”
There was and is no one better in Airolo
Both ski instructors are convinced that the slopes of Pesciüm have never seen such a good skier as Gut-Behrami. Other well-known athletes with impressive records such as Doris de Agostini (†62) and Michela Figini (57) also learned to ski above Airolo.
“Lara’s achievements are impressive and she fully deserves you,” Lucchini says to the ball before handing it back into our hands. We say goodbye to the two and take the gondola back to the car and drive south. It is almost 88 kilometers to Comano. Gut-Behrami grew up in this village high above Lugano. In Via Dangio.
“The pride of Comano”
We get out in the middle of the village. It is already considerably warmer than in Leventina. It doesn’t take long before the crystal ball first catches your eye. We had just placed her on a wall in front of the church for the photo when a woman asked us: “Is that the big World Cup ski ball that Lara won?” The police officer, who helps schoolchildren cross the street, is excited and says she remembers Lara well. “She is the pride of Comano.”
It sounds the same when we enter the village shop – “La Bottega di Comano”. The saleswoman does not know Lara or the Gut family personally. “We only recently took over this store,” she explains. Still, she has heard many stories about her and is proud of how she represents Comano in the world.
The help in need
Perhaps Gut-Behrami would never have become the skier she is without a certain Enzo Filippini. The Leventin resident and now 72 years old has invested a lot in Lara’s career. He lived and worked in the neighboring village of Comano – in Savosa – for a long time. We meet the former president (2001-2020) of the Ticino Ski Association in his office at his company Filippini Holding and show him the ball that will soon belong to Gut-Behrami. He is fascinated.
Filippini’s financial support to the Gut family began in the summer of 2005. “Pauli was looking for a sponsor for Lara to organize a training camp in South America. Ultimately, I arranged for him to hire a bank manager from the region to help him with financing. But when things got serious before departure, the Guts could no longer be reached. Pauli came to me in need. From that moment on I sponsored Lara for two years.” In return, the logo of his former company, Oftrader, could be seen on her helmet.
“Definitely made one or two mistakes”
Filippini is not only a successful investor, but also a bit of a ski prophet: “When I saw Lara on skis for the first time, I called the Ticino television very enthusiastically and said: ‘Come to Airolo, you absolutely have to go there have one. Contribute with the future overall World Cup winner. ›» The RSI complied with his request and made a nice story about the little hopeful Ticino.
Filippini was right in his view. But he regrets that Gut-Behrami’s successes in Ticino never received the great recognition they deserved. “Even though she certainly made one or two mistakes in her communication.” His personal contact with her became increasingly sporadic over the years. Yet they still hear each other occasionally.
After the hour-long conversation we leave Filippini’s office. We put the crystal ball back in the car and drive from Lake Lugano to Lake Maggiore. It is now afternoon and the thermometer shows almost 20 degrees. Best t-shirt weather – mid-March.
She also did well at school
In Ascona we take the heavy ball out of the trunk one last time and carry it to the Collegio Papio. It is the Catholic school where Gut-Behrami received her high school diploma. Don Patrizio Foletti is waiting for us here. He says that she did not go to a regular class, but to individual lessons. “Because she was already active at the World Cup at the time. But when she was there, somehow all the students always knew,” he recalls.
Between 2010 and 2014, Gut-Behrami took her Matura exams in four stages. “The subject she needed the most help with was physics. But she always had her affairs under control,” says Foletti. Her Matura score, which is above 5, is a testament to this. This made her better than many others. Just like on skis.
If the crystal ball had feelings, it would be bursting with curiosity because it wants to finally get to know the exceptional Gut-Behrami personally. That’s why we don’t let them be tortured anymore. We leave the Sonnenstube and take it back to the other side of the Gotthard. At the same time, we assure the ball that it will soon meet its new owner. Three more sleeps. Saturday is the day.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
