Skiing: waiting for Goggia and Brignone, in Solden the spotlight is on Bassino

While waiting for Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone, the curtain rises on the snow season in Solden. The world cup begins with the now classic women's giant slalom, the opening race which presents itself in an Italian key as a super test for Marta Bassino: the Piedmontese, 30 years old, with two world titles and seven cup victories, began her career in the cup in Soelden in 2016 and on the Rettebanch glacier track she also won in 2020, opening the season that led her to win the specialty cup.

But Solden is also linked to a decidedly less positive memory, because it is here that last year the Italian was injured on the eve of the race, and was thus forced to stop for a year and miss the Cortina Olympics. Bassino thus has a strong yet contrasting bond with Soelden. So the inaugural competition will be a testing ground for her even if, as is her shy and reserved nature, on the eve she says she ''does not want to set particular goals and it will be nice just to breathe the competition air and wear a bib.

"After many years it is the first time without them. We look forward to seeing them as soon as possible. But it will still be nice to see so many young people throwing themselves on the track" says Bassino referring to her Italian teammates competing with her at the start: Lara Della mea, Laura Pirovano, Asja Zenere, Ilaria Ghisalberti, Giorgis Collomb, Tatum Bieler and Emilia Mondinelli.

Which obviously will not have an easy life with very fierce competition. At the moment the most feared seems to be the Austrian Julia Scheib who won last year for the first time in her career and then strung together a series of successes that led her to win the cup. Then - observed as absolutely special - is the German Emma Aicher. She is only 22 years old and is an excellent all-rounder with successes in fast races and prestigious podiums in technical ones. Last season it missed out on the big world cup by just 87 points.

It was stolen from him - needless to say - by the insatiable and implacable super champion Mikaela Shiffrin who decided to focus on the giant instead limiting her appearances in the special where she has already won everything possible. So the American is expected to have one of her superlative races. Slovakian Petra Vlhova can give her no worries, returning after two seasons out due to injury, the only one who has ever really worried her in the past.