A seventh gold, a 20th medal, and the Lillehammer legend finally matched. With one week of competition still remaining at Milano Cortina 2026, Italy Team equals its Winter Olympic record — set 32 years ago in Norway — and does so in the name of Federica Brignone, victorious in giant slalom, her signature event and the discipline in which she has claimed 17 World Cup wins.

After gold in the super-G three days ago, the Italian star (photo Simone Ferraro/CONI) once again masters the iconic Olympia delle Tofane in Cortina and secures her second victory of the same Olympic edition — a feat previously achieved among Italian skiers only by Alberto Tomba (gold in slalom and giant slalom at Calgary 1988) — all 349 days after the injury that could have ended her career but instead provided the added drive to claim her first Olympic golds, following a silver (giant slalom at Beijing 2022) and two bronzes (giant slalom at PyeongChang 2018 and alpine combined at Beijing 2022).
Brignone — the first woman ever to win both a super-G and a giant slalom at the same Olympic Games — dominates the opening run and defends her 0.34 advantage over Germany’s Lena Duerr (who ultimately finished ninth) and 0.46 over Sofia Goggia, who slipped from third to tenth after her downhill bronze last Sunday.
Lara Della Mea delivers a superb performance to finish fourth, narrowly missing the podium behind joint silver medallists Thea Louise Stjernesund of Norway and Sweden’s Sara Hector (+0.62). Asja Zenere produces a sensational second run, clocking the fastest time and climbing eight places to finish 14th.

“If you want to understand what a phenomenon is, look at Federica: she is smiling now, but when she was doing physiotherapy in Turin in the early days, she cried from the pain. Perhaps, in a small way, I contributed when I decided to entrust her with the role of flag bearer, because her mother told me after we won the first gold medal: ‘When you called, I saw in Federica’s eyes the desire to do it at all costs.’ That is a wonderful satisfaction,” revealed CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio.
“Working with athletes of this level is very difficult, because you cannot be banal, you cannot improvise; you must know your role, know what they need and try to put them in the best possible condition. With all the pressure she had at that moment, winning proves she truly has all the qualities of a leader,” he added.