Getting back into wearing the racing suit, helmet, gloves and glasses but above all my racing skates after almost 25 years since my last world championship. Almost unthinkable, believe me, up to just a few months ago.
Not simply because since my career ended I had not practised sports, but more specifically that short track being such a technical event it’s a discipline rarely returned to even after professionalism. This is the case at least in Italy with adults navigating the ice on long blades even though it really doesn’t matter if your back and legs don’t bend anything like as much as they once did, and even less that the stopwatch inevitably displays a time perhaps extended by 25% compared to back in the ‘90’s!
It was a couple of years ago when I first heard that WWMG was being programmed in my home town of Bormio. I can’t deny that a little curiosity was immediately raised within me, or perhaps it was a matter of instinct. And the very same occurred amongst my former national team mates Mara, Barbara and Marinella during our Olympic careers and with whom I shared a world title and record; at first our exchanges were light-hearted but as time went on, it was to become a reality. “Girls – come on – let’s have a crack at this, the competition’s at home, it’s a chance to have fun together again!” Reliving all the emotions, the wind hitting your face, the silky silence of blade on ice and the body leaning when cornering at speed (albeit not like it once did…)but you can still resist the centrifugal force which produces energy – even at far slower speeds.
So a combination of energy and enthusiasm has got me back into the swing and as I say to the kids at my old Bormio Ghiaccio Club, although short track – both physiologically or on automatic pilot is not “natural for the old guys!” – who cares! And indeed I thank the younger generation enormously. The crucial thing, just as when in training for the Olympic Games, is to do it with passion, in company and above all is to have fun and not lose your sense of humour, even when after maybe just a few laps the lactic acid flows back to revive sensations pleasantly forgotten.
And so it is in this very spirit that I will be reliving my greatest sporting passion, speed skating on short track ice, a speciality that has featured throughout my life from childhood, then athlete, mother, wife and now journalist. And what perhaps will be the most emotional moment? Seeing my parents once again in the stands at the age of 80 with tears in their eyes when they see their “little girl” back on the ice.
