Mike Santuari has reason to be happy.

South Tyrol has an overall winner of the Snowboard European Cup.

In disciplines other than alpine skiing, South Tyrolean athletes celebrated great successes last week. Snowboarder Mike Santuari was crowned overall winner at the European Cup final in Ratschings. Meanwhile, the Italian Youth Championships took place in Forni Avoltri, and there too, plenty of South Tyrolean winners could be seen. Here's the usual overview.

March 17, 2026

From: pm/det

Everything was set in Ratschings last weekend for the grand finale of the European Cup. In the first parallel slalom, Japan's Ryusuke Shinohara prevailed in the final against neutral athlete Iaroslav Stepanko. Tommy Rabanser from Val Gardena finished third, defeating fellow neutral Ilia Khurtin in the small final. Fabian Lantschner (Bolzano) came in fifth.

In the second men's parallel slalom, Lantschner finished second after losing the final to Austrian Joachim Gravogl. Manuel Haller (Burgstall) finished fourth behind South Korea's Junho Ma. State team athlete Tobias Mutschlechner (St. Vigil) impressed with a 15th-place finish.

Despite finishing ninth and 22nd, Mike Santuari from Welschnofen had reason to celebrate, as he won the overall title ahead of Haller. Among the women, only Anna Mammone (Welschnofen) from South Tyrol managed to qualify in the second parallel slalom on Sunday, finishing in 13th place.

South Tyrol's young biathletes shine at the Italian Championships

The Italian Youth Championships in relay (Saturday) and individual (Sunday) took place in Forni Avoltri over the weekend. Several athletes from South Tyrol managed to secure the coveted titles. In the relays, Luca Aircò, Matthäus Schwitzer, and Leo Schwienbacher finished third in the men's "Aspiranti" category, while the women's trios of Ilvy Marie Markart, Anna Wolf, and Verena Pallua, and Katia Pallua, Sara Eisath, and Elsa Canins narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. In the "Juniores" category, Eva Hutter, Eva Weiss, and Ester Cruciani took third place.

The South Tyrolean team dominated the "Giovani" (youngest age group): Andreas Braunhofer, Aaron Niederstätter, and Jonas Tscholl won the relay ahead of Rafael Santer, Jan Steinkasserer, and Julian Huber, as well as Gabriel Haller, Elias Niederstätter, and Alex Fontana. René Tirler, Adam Neumair, and Aaron Galiani finished fourth. In the women's competition of this age group, the trio of Nina Nocker, Lena Sofie Haller, and Thea Wanker finished third, and the trio of Patrizia La Marchina, Melanie Ranalter, and Anna Maria De Angelis finished fourth.

The next top results followed in the singles competition on Sunday. Starting with the "Giovani" (youngest age group), where the top five places were all taken by South Tyroleans. Andreas Braunhofer won, followed by Aaron Niederstätter, Julian Huber, Rafael Santer, and Jonas Tscholl. In the women's competition of this age group, Nina Nocker finished fifth. There was also a South Tyrolean Italian champion in the "Aspiranti" (youngest age group), where Felix Wolf from the South Tyrolean state team triumphed. In the women's competition, Sara Eisath finished fourth and Elsa Canins fifth. And another South Tyrolean triumph followed in the men's "Juniores" (juniors) category, with Maximilian Leitgeb winning the singles title. Simone Motta finished fifth. In the junior women's competition, Eva Hutter shone, taking second place.

Satisfactory results for freestyle snowboarders

The freestyle snowboarders competed at the Italian Championships in Madonna di Campiglio at the beginning of last week. There were some respectable results. Ben Marmsoler (Seis) finished sixth in both Big Air and Slopestyle in the "Aspiranti" category, Marika Frenademez (Stern) took fourth place twice in the "Junior" category, and Marian Brunner (Antholz) finished sixth in Slopestyle and ninth in Big Air in the "Junior" age group.

Previously, a stage of the Coppa Italia took place in Madonna di Campiglio. There, Marmsoler finished third in Big Air and fourth in Slopestyle in the "Aspiranti" category, Frenademez achieved the same results in the "Junior" age group, and Brunner came fifth in the "Juniors" Slopestyle. Nicole Bazzanella also achieved a notable success: The athlete from Völs won the U18 Slopestyle event at the FIS "LAAX Kids Open" race in Worblaufen, Switzerland.

Strong performance from South Tyrol at the freeski premiere

Obereggen saw a premiere for freeskiers this past weekend, as a Big Air and Rail event was held for the first time as part of the Coppa Italia IFT. In Big Air, Alex Putzer (Wolkenstein) took first place, Jakob Aichner (Hafling) finished third, and Jonas Gasslitter (Pontives) came in fifth; all three are members of the state freeski team. Julius Ladurner from Burgstall won the "Giovani" category, while Leo del Frari from Vitamin-F also secured third place in the "Allievi" category. Alex Putzer again won the Rail event, and Sebastian Hofer, also from Burgstall, took second place in the "Allievi" category.

The ski jumpers were also in action over the weekend, traveling to Hinterzarten (Germany) for the Alpen Cup final. Leonie Runggaldier (Kastelruth) from the South Tyrol regional team finished eleventh in the women's competition. In the men's event, Maximilian Gartner (Gröden) finished in 20th and 12th place.

The Italian U14 Cross-Country Skiing Championships took place in Primiero at Passo Cereda from last Friday to Sunday. The competition kicked off on Friday with the freestyle sprint, where Anna Profanter (Seiser Alm) secured victory in the women's event. Her teammate Ronja Zemmer finished fifth. In the classic style, Profanter also finished fifth, while Matias Piazza (SC Gröden) came in seventh in the men's race. The three-day event concluded on Sunday with the relays, where South Tyrol's mixed team, consisting of Zemmer, Profanter, Piazza, and Lorenz Larcher, finished second behind Trentino.