The China Mail - Brignone, the Italian tigress who battled injury into history books

At 35 years old, Brignone became the oldest gold medallist, man or woman, in the history of her sport, and she did it in style on home snow 10 months after a horrible injury which risked forcing her into retirement.

Brignone also beat Lindsey Vonn's record of being the oldest woman to win an alpine skiing medal at the Winter Games, the Italian upstaging the US ski icon with a comeback for the ages in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

"I keep going and I don't lack for energy. Honestly I don't feel older," Brignone told reporters on Thursday.

"It just seems to me that I have more experience, am more able to manage things that come up differently, behave differently and react differently. That can only be a plus."

Vonn's audacious attempt to go for Milan-Cortina medals had overshadowed Brignone's own bid to compete following a long recovery from her injury, shortly after she was crowned giant slalom world champion and World Cup queen.

But late bloomer Brignone is front and centre again, 'The Tiger' once again gritting her teeth despite near constant pain in her left leg to give her country a huge sporting moment.

"It's like a film that you watch and think is totally unbelievable because there's no way things could end that well," Brignone said Thursday.

"You think it's all totally fake, completely impossible. One of those that you don't like because the ending is just too happy."

Brignone's career hung in the balance when a crash at the Italian championships, shortly after she was crowned giant slalom world champion and World Cup queen, left her with a double leg break and a race against time to be at the Olympics, let alone win gold.

"You really feel like dreams can become reality and I'm so proud of her, I'm proud that she tried because that's what's truly important," said her brother and coach Davide Brignone.

"We didn't know how it was going to go, but if you don't try none of this would have happened."

- Ski family -

Brignone comes from a skiing family: her mother, Maria Rosa Quario, won four World Cup slaloms in the 1980s and finished fourth in the special slalom at the 1980 Olympics.

Born in Milan, she discovered skiing at the age of three when her parents settled in La Salle in the Aosta Valley, near Italy's border with France.

Brignone made her World Cup debut at 17 and won junior world championship gold in the combined in 2009, following that up the next season by her first World Cup podium finish.

She had to wait until 2015 for her first World Cup victory -- in the giant slalom in Soelden -- but she announced herself as one to watch with silver in the giant slalom at the 2011 world championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The first of her four Olympic medals came in Pyeongchang eight years ago, when she claimed bronze in her favourite discipline, topping that with silver at the 2022 Games in Beijing.

Her triumph on Thursday brings things full circle for her, as she convinced the Italian ski federation to allow her brother to coach her after she failed to finish the giant slalom and combined in the 2021 world championships -- in Cortina.

Asked what was the best moment of the past 10 months for her, Brignone said: "Today... when I realised that I could take on the turns and put pressure on my leg.

"The first time I did the giant slalom. The first time I was able to walk, that was great after three months," she added. "The first time that I came close to doing a squat."

Brignone will have another chance to glory on Sunday when she competes in the giant slalom, the discipline in which she has had the most of her success.

S.Davis--ThChM