UNeapolitan na at the Winter Olympics. It’s not a joke, but the solid reality of Giada D’Antonio, the black panther of San Sebastiano a Vesuvio, the first Neapolitan ever called up to a Winter Olympics, will be at the starting gate on February 18th for the special Olympics slalom. Like Mikaela Shiffrin, Camile Rast, Wendy Holdener and so on, all the protagonists of the world cup that until yesterday she only watched on TV. “For me it’s a great joy,” Giada said to her family immediately after the official call-up.
«And for all of us who have followed her on this path it is a source of happiness and pride», adds her father Fabio D’Antonio. For everyone at home it’s a dream come true. «My daughter is one q who has just started this professional journey”, says Giada’s father, still excited, who is already packing his suitcase for Cortina. «I could never miss this race. In our hearts we hoped for the call, but if it hadn’t come nothing would have happened.” Gada is a 16 year old girl who knows how to manage emotions.
THE HISTORY
And this is not the story of Jamaica’s bobsleigh of Disney memory, but that of a splendid sixteen-year-old considered by all to be an authentic phenomenon who is attracting international attention to the point of obtaining a pass for her first Olympics. Insiders have been watching it carefully for years, but what happened in November accelerated everything. The first two FIS races in her career, two victories, moreover starting with prohibitive bibs – 82 and 63 – and against bigger, physically stronger, more experienced athletes. In the first slalom, the gap inflicted on her peers was almost embarrassing: the 2009 runner-up finished 25th, over eight seconds behind. Numbers that do not belong to chance. The transition to the FIS world is usually a brutal reset. You start from scratch, you stop winning, you learn to lose. Giada D’Antonio didn’t: she continued to attack, as if nothing had changed.
«Everyone talks about the difficulty of changing categories, but I immediately felt at ease, fluid, convinced», she said after the Swiss races in Schilthorn. Then three races in the world cup, a couple in the Nor-Am circuit (the equivalent of our European Cup) before the phone call to Cortina. No Alps close by, but Apennines, kilometers by car, wake-ups at night. She grew up in the Vesuvio Ski Club, chaired by her uncle Stefano Romano, and learned to ski in Roccaraso. His favorite track is “il Macchione”. The first Italian title arrived at the age of 9, then an impressive sequence in the Children category: victories, gaps, personality. At the Alpe Cimbra FIS Children Cup he dominated, at the 2025 Italian Championships in Ovindoli he won in giant slalom and in skicross, also coming close to the podium in super-G despite the poor visibility. He left Naples in the summer of 2025, moving to Predazzo, in Val di Fiemme, one of the beating hearts of Milano-Cortina 2026.
“As a child, 12 hours of travel to races was normal,” she said. At the races with his mother Sandra, an Ecuadorian who found love in Naples, his mentor and confidant, while the daily work is entrusted to Carlo Ceccato, an expert coach and technical point of reference. Her preparation took her far, all the way to Ushuaia, Argentina, with the Italian youth selection. And the results came one after the other. Thinking of a Neapolitan at the Winter Olympics is no longer a folkloristic suggestion. It is a concrete hypothesis, built through results, sacrifices and kilometres. The mountain, for Giada, is not a geographical limit: it is a peak to climb. And Naples, from afar, looks at it with pride. «Thanks to Black Panther, our Giada, Campano skiing has an Olympic, the satisfaction of Antonio Barulli, president of the Campania committee of Federsci – Today we write a page in the history of the Campania movement of the winter sports federation. We have been supporting Giada’s path for several years and we will continue to do so. Always Go Black Panther.” «It is an increasingly strong emotion after the debut on December 28th which represents a further culmination of the great work carried out by the club and the confirmation of the immense abilities of our Giada. His main qualities are humility and normality”, the greeting from the president of the ski club Stefano Romano.
