Italy claimed their first-ever gold medal in the Mixed Team Parallel at Saalbach 2025 Alpine World Ski Championships. Italy, who won bronze in Are in 2019, had never appeared in a Big Final at the World Championships and were not expected to beat a strong Swiss team in their quest for a second gold medal in this event.
The Azzurri edged Switzerland in the Big Final. Alex Vinatzer, Lara Della Mea, Filippo Della Vite, and 18-year-old Giorgia Collomb gave the Italians their first-ever Team gold medal beating Wendy Holdener, Luca Aerni, Thomas Tumler, and Delphine Darbellay.
The Big Final was not decided until the last run. Thomas Tumler failed coming out of the starting gate -he wanted to leave the starting house too early and got stuck at the gate-, and Alex Vinatzer raced to the finish to claim the decisive victory despite the full attack of the Swiss. After a 2:2 draw, the Italians celebrated gold, having been 0.45 seconds faster.
"It’s great! We never considered ourselves favorites. We’re a young team, and this is truly a dream start for us. After our victory against Sweden, we started to believe in our potential. Each of us supported the others and compensated for any mistakes. This showed our strong team spirit," Vinatzer said.
The silver medal is a significant achievement for Switzerland, as the country had not secured a medal in the last three major Team Events. Although Switzerland is one of the strongest countries in alpine skiing, it has only been on the podium twice in the Team Parallel, winning gold in 2019 and bronze in 2007.
"It's a perfect start for us. We're happy. We fought, we made some mistakes but we never gave up and it's so nice to stand up there with the silver medal," said Holdener.
Sweden, led by Sara Hector, finished in third place to claim the bronze medal after beating the US Team in the Small Final. The US Ski Team, who came to Saalbach as defending champions, went home empty-handed.
Sweden has won its seventh medal in this event, making it the most decorated nation, surpassing Austria, which has six medals. Austria missed the chance to win a seventh medal after losing to Sweden in the quarter-finals.
"I would say we really did everything like a team together today. We just tried to give it all. It's so cool to do it. I feel like everybody really was a big part of us standing here with a medal today, so that's also really cool," Sara Hector said.
"Sport meets show" was the motto of the Opening Ceremony of the Saalbach 2025 Alpine World Ski Championships. Between the rounds of the Team Event, the opening ceremony featured entertaining elements, singing performances, and the story of the children Laurenz and Romi from Glemmtal, who dream of a career as ski racers and travel around Austria to achieve this. A special highlight of the event was guested by ski legends Ivica Kostelic and Jan Hudec with their band Masters of Disaster performing the song "Seven Nations Army" by the White Stripes. The special guest was Max Franz, who is working on a comeback after breaking his leg twice, on drums.
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