The Alpine Ski World Cup will soon celebrate in Zagreb, on January 5th, the 50th anniversary of it first race at – yet already today one of its greatest characters is turning 50, Italian Alberto Tomba.
It’s hard to believe that triple Olympic Champion Alberto Tomba, who retired in March 1998 after a 50th and last World Cup win at Crans-Montana, is (also) slowly aging since most of his fans and friends like to remember him as a timeless showman who enchanted millions of TV viewers around the globe.
Interestingly, Tomba’s name was also in the air this past weekend after Austria’s Marcel Hirscher celebrated his first giant slalom win this season in Alta Badia – and his fourth on the ‘Gran Risa’ in that specialty as much as the former Italian champion.
Alberto’s star began to rise here thirty years ago when he finished second in the race captured by his teammate Richard Pramotton – two months before becoming the only member of the Italian ‘Squadra Azzurra’ to grab a medal at the 1987 Ski World Championships organized at Crans-Montana.
Quickly nicknamed ‘Tomba-la-Bomba’ after his first rather unexpected World Cup wins at Sestriere in November 1987, Alberto created huge interest in the ski world with his graceful winning style, his personal way of life and his unusual comments made after victories including his ‘I’m the messiah of skiing’ quote he shouted at the arrival after his triumph at Madonna di Campiglio – his fourth in a row in December 1987.
His flamboyant personality and his great charm that even attracted former East-Germany’s star Katarina Witt totally shook-up the establishment of alpine ski racing during that remarkable 1987/88 season crowned by two Olympic gold medals at Calgary and nine World Cup wins.
He had to wait seven long years before winning the Overall World Cup in March 1995, in Bormio, after winning a total of eleven races. One year later, he finally captured his first FIS gold medals at Sierra Nevada (ESP).
In the meantime, the citizen from Castel dei Britti, near Bologna, became in February 1992 the first alpine skier to retain his Olympic title in giant slalom after another impressive performance on the treacherous ‘La Face de Bellevarde’ at Val d’Isère that allowed him to beat top favorites as Marc Girardelli or Kjetil Andre Aamodt.
A good cook too!
An outgoing - sometimes bragging - athlete who seemed only interested by fun parties, Alberto also enjoy to be a rather quiet and relaxed young man in his family circle or among his best friends from the faithful ‘Tomba-Club Castel dei Britti’ which has been following him for years. He was a great friend to some of his travel companions who greatly enjoyed his expertise while cooking a nice plate of pasta on the tour between two races.
Being from Bologna, Alberto is of course a great expert in Italian cuisine – and a fine wine connoisseur. He is believed to have put together a nice collection of great wines in his cellar – nearly 5,000 bottles of wine from around the world.
Alberto often watched races on TV – and sometimes also comments them on Italian TV – yet he only seldom cruises down famous ski slopes as he used to. “I can’t ski too often as people soon recognize me on the slopes and chase me, but when I have time, I like to go nearby Bologna in a remote area where the management closes some runs for me,” he said recently. “At the beginning of my career, ski and racing was so much fun but soon it became pretty hard for me with all the pressure the fans and the Italian media put on my shoulders,” Alberto also said. “I could not continue to be as relaxed and free as I wanted – my mother often said I should have stopped after my great 1988 season and start a real job. Yet I don’t regret anything special – it has been a great time and I fully enjoyed it.”
Story courtesy of Patrick Lang
Source: fis-ski.com
