Skiing: Razzoli back to hero's welcome
'The Rocket' mobbed at airport
03 March, 16:43
(ANSA) - Milan, March 3 - Italian slalom skier Giuliano
Razzoli arrived back to a hero's welcome Thursday after winning
Italy's only gold in Vancouver."I'm still thrilled but judging from this welcome I guess I thrilled you too," said Razzoli, 25, transformed overnight from a contender into a star like his mentor Alberto Tomba.
Three coaches from Razzoli's small home town of Villa Minozzo in the Emilian Alps carried the mayor, banner-waving officials, a marching band and a contingent of Italy's famous Alpine regiment to Milan's Malpensa Airport to hail the man who single-handedly rescued the Azzurris' Olympics.
The slalomist's family, friends and a flying wedge of admirers fought their way through the press pack to hug their boy, whose gold in the Games' final and blue-riband event came after two weeks of disappointment that produced only a silver and two bronzes. Razzoli, who won his first world cup slalom a few weeks before Vancouver but was not among the favourites, said a special thank you to "My Mum, who put up with so much while I was learning how to ski".
Like Tomba, Razzoli hails not from skiing's Alpine heartland but from the central Apennines where skiers have much more to do to make it to the top.
His father put in nights at his farm equipment workshop to fund Razzoli's efforts to imitate Tomba, his inspiration since, as a toddler, he saw him claim a slalom gold at Calgary in 1988.
"He was my idol, now he's my friend," said Razzoli.
Tomba kept up a torrent of texted advice from the bottom of the slalom slope Saturday night.
He wept openly when Razzoli, fastest in the first run and steady-as-she-goes in the second, secured Italy's first Alpine skiing medal since Tomba blasted from nowhere to second in the Albertville giant slalom in 1992. The Italian media have already started calling him Rocket Razzoli ('razzo'=rocket) in a nod to Tomba La Bomba ('the bomb') but the boy-next-door Emilian, whose unassuming personality is light years away from Tomba's exuberance, said "I'd need real rockets to emulate what he did".
"Right now all I'm thinking about is a nice long rest," he said before boarding a coach back down to the Apennines.
