Italy’s Corradini returns to slopes

After being sidelined most of the season due to injury, standing skier Melania Corradini has returned to the slopes for the World Championships in La Molina. 21 Feb 2013

Italy's Melania Corradini at the 2012 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in La Molina

ⒸIPC

By IPC

“For me, this season will be good if I can ski.”

Italy’s Melania Corradini, a Paralympic silver medallist, is happy to have just been able to go down the slopes this week at the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in La Molina, Spain.

After crashing on the slopes and suffering multiple injuries last November, Corradini just resumed her training a couple of weeks ago and is not where she’d like to be yet just one year out from the next Paralympic Winter Games.

As her doctors said she had to limit herself to just a couple of events this season, Corradini is only competing in three events in La Molina: downhill, super-G and giant slalom. She will not participate in the slalom and super combined.

“For me, this season will be good if I can ski,” Corradini told the IPC last week. “I don’t know if I can race for the podium or not. I don’t know if I’m racing good or not this season because I wasn’t even training regularly.

“My physique is not ready and up to par like before. But I know that and I will try to have some good races. I’m not sure if I can race like before, though, but I will try and we will see.”

When fully healthy, Corradini is at her best in the super-G standing, an event she claimed silver in at Vancouver 2010.

Corradini finished in seventh place in the event on Thursday (21 February) in La Molina with a time of 1:24.27. The women’s super-G standing event was won by France’s Marie Bochet, who was joined on the podium by her compatriot Solene Jambaque and Germany’s Andrea Rothfuss, who are all part of a very competitive class.

“I think right now Bochet is better,” Corradini said prior to Bochet’s victory. “She is younger and training better than the rest.”

The day prior, Corradini finished sixth in a field of nine in the downhill discipline, clocking in at 1:44.13, nearly 10 seconds behind the leader, Bochet.

She said as soon as she returns home to Italy she is required to return to the hospital for a doctor’s visit to see how her body is holding up.

Despite not racing at all earlier this season, Corradini had the chance to watch Bochet and Rothfuss in person at the IPC World and Europa Cup events in Tarvisio and Sestriere, Italy.

Corradini will race in her final event at the Championships next Tuesday, when she aims to crack the podium in the giant slalom.