The entrance to J Medicalthe applause and ovation from the staff, the contagious smile. Federica Brignone she returned to Turin yesterday afternoon, to the city where she built, in just over a hundred days, a substantial part of the miracle experienced in Cortina.
Two gold medals at the Olympics, one in super-G and one in giant, won almost with ease ten months after the very serious injury that involved his knee and more. An accident that had seriously put her career in doubt, which had led her to say “it will be good if I walk again”. Instead, with determination, and with the support of a first-rate medical staff, he wrote one of the most exciting pages in the history of Italian and world sport.
In Valle d’Aosta, among Federica Brignone’s friends: “It went beyond imaginable”
by Guido Andruetto
This is why her return to J Medical yesterday afternoon (where her colleague also arrived in the afternoon Marta Bassino) seemed more like a tribute than an appointment to undergo physical tests, which are essential to understand how to face the rest of the season after the exploit in Milan-Cortina. However, there is a dark side still to be overcome: behind the smile shown after the victory there is the coexistence with the pain, the suffering endured to try to accomplish a real feat, at any cost.
His recovery journey was long, exhausting and with very few certainties. She is not finished with the two golds in Cortina, she will still need time to overcome the pain she has lived and lives with: “I’m tired of taking medicine, now I need a period of rest”, was her confession directly from Casa Italia shortly after the triumph.
The double Olympic champion arrived at Continue shortly after 3pm on board a customized Audi: partly voluntarily, partly not. In addition to the name “Federica Brignone” on the rear left side, the dust accumulated in the mountains allowed fans to write words of encouragement: “Vai Fede” or “La Tigre”. But also a more witty “Can I wash your car?”. Upon crossing the threshold of the Turin medical center there was an ovation from the employees who have learned to know the “Tiger” in recent months: an emotional “thank you” from Brignone who then entered the belly of J Medical to undergo the scheduled tests. To then leave almost four hours later, meeting other fans who had come after learning of his presence. A few selfies with the fans, but no statement upon leaving: he only said “It’s the Olympic silence”, which imposes on athletes, during the Games, the ban on making unofficial statements and on limiting the use of social networks.
Returning to the Turin medical center, it was widely cited during Milan-Cortina 2026: there the Olympic medals of Federica Brignone and Flora Tabanelli. The two athletes often met and confided in each other during the rehabilitation period, when the former was trying to return and the latter to overcome the cruciate ligament injury in her right knee. Mission accomplished for both: in addition to the two medals in skiing, Tabanelli received bronze in big air.
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