Biography
Deborah Compagnoni was born in Bormio, northern Lombardy, skied with the G.S. Forestale.
Compagnoni soon was noticed for her great talent. Her career was always marked by great successes, by also by great accidents. After her first great victory, the World Junior Title in Giant slalom, and her first podium in World Cup, she broke her right knee in the Val d'Isére downhill. After the surgery operation she decided to abandon the downhill races, where her talented could have permitted even greater successes than those she obtained in her yet victorious career.
Compagnoni won her first race in the World Cup in 1992. She also won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics of the same year, again in the Super-G: however, while racing the Giant Slalom, one day later, she destroyed her left knee.
In the following years she left the fast races (downhill and super-G), confirming herself as one of the best Giant Slalom specialists. Her fragile knees hindered Compagnoni's practice activity and limited the number of victories in the World Cup: however, she always presented in her best shapes for the great championships. In 1994, at the Lillehammer Olympics, she won gold medal in the Giant Slalom, a feat she repeated four years later in Nagano. In 1998 she won also a silver medal in the Slalom, finishing second by only 0.06 seconds.
Compagnoni won the World Champion in Giant Slalom in 1996: in the following year edition she confirmed the title, coupling it with the Slalom one, a deed never accomplished by any Italian female skier. She won a total of 16 races in the Alpine Skiing World Cup (14 Giant Slalom, 2 Super-G and 1 Slalom), plus a Giant Slalom World Cup in 1997.
Deborah Compagnoni is considered the best female skier ever of Italy, equal to famous male winners like Gustav Thöni and Alberto Tomba. The World Cup skiing track in her native Santa Caterina Valfurva has been named after her.
She is married to Alessandro Benetton; they have three children: Agnese, Tobias, and Luce; they live in Ponzano Veneto, Italy.
Read more about this topic: Deborah Compagnoni
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