Giorgia Collomb is the new Junior World Champion in giant slalom. © FISI

“Unbelievable!” Italy has a new Junior World Champion

Giorgia Collomb won the first Italian gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Tarvisio in front of a home crowd. She could hardly believe her triumph in the giant slalom.

March 03, 2025

From: never

"It's unbelievable," enthused Giorgia Collomb in an interview with FISI after her coup at the Junior World Championships. "I don't know what to think, but I'm very, very happy." It was an unbelievable day, which the 18-year-old from Aosta sweetened with a gold medal. After the first round on Monday, the Italian was still seven tenths of a second behind the half-time leader Sue Piller from Switzerland, who was eliminated in the deciding round. Collomb, however, kept her nerve and took advantage of her competitor's slip-up. The podium was completed by the Swiss Stefanie Grob (+0,56 seconds) and the American Elisabeth Bocock (+0,62).

"The first run was very difficult, with a lot of speed, and I never expected to win today," she said of her performance. "In the second run, I just tried to be myself, think about myself and just be 'Giorgia' without thinking about anything else." In addition to Collomb, five other Azzurre were at the start. Tatum Bieler came in a strong fifth (+0,66), Ambra Pomaré (9th/+1,65), Camilla Vanni (22nd/+2,82), Giulia Valleriani (24th/+3,35) and Ludovica Righi (28th/+5,31) came in further back.

Collomb ends Italian dry spell

With her storm to gold, Collomb also ended a dry spell for Italian skiers at the Junior World Championships. The last gold medal was on March 10, 2021, when Sophie Mathiou triumphed in the slalom in Bansko. The last title in the giant slalom, however, was won by Laura Pirovano in 2017 in Are, Sweden. In total, the Azzurre had seven junior world champions in this discipline: Deborah Compagnoni (1987), Sabina Panzanini (1991), Karen Putzer (1996, 1997), Denise Karbon (1999), Nadia Fanchini (2005), Marta Bassino (2014) and Pirovano.

Filippo Della Vite, Giorgia Collomb, Lara Della Mea and Alex Vinatzer celebrate gold. © APA/afp / DIMITAR DILKOFF

Collomb has had exciting weeks. Not long ago, she celebrated team gold at the “big” Ski World Championships in Saalbach Hinterglemm alongside Filippo Della Vite, Lara Della Mea and Alex Vinatzer, and now she has also won an individual discipline this winter. But this feeling is nothing new for her: after all, she became Olympic champion in the giant slalom at the Youth Winter Games in Gangwon about a year ago.