On day six of the Torino 2025 FISU World University Games Winter, medals were awarded in four disciplines, and Italy was represented at the award ceremony in three of them! The hosts won a complete set of medals and have now won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals at this event.
Para-Skiing, another Gold for Martina Vozza
Martina Vozza won another gold medal in the last Paralympic Alpine skiing event of the Universiade. In the mountains of Bardonecchia, on the Melezet slope, the athlete crossed the finish line of the giant slalom in almost 40 seconds less than the second classified, the German Luisa Grube. No podium instead for the men’s national team, led by Iulm student Giorgio Napoli.
In Melezet, the day began with the first round of the women’s giant slalom. A total of eight athletes competed, divided into three categories. Martina Vozza competed in Vision Impaired accompanied by guide Ylenia Sabidussi. The Italian finished the downhill as first runner-up, with a time of one minute, 11 seconds and 15 tenths. In the Standing category the fastest to complete the race was Aurelie Richard from France, while in Sitting first place was taken by 23-year-old Nette Kiviranta from Finland.
Once the first run was over, the athletes battled again in the giant slalom to overturn the hierarchies and get a place on the podium. However, there were no big surprises for the audience. The winners of the three categories of the first round proved to be unbeatable for the competitors, once again achieving the best times.
‘I am very happy with how today went and how I skied. In some places I could have pushed a little harder, but compared to other Super-Gs today it went very well,’ Vozza commented on her performance. Also a protagonist of the first round, the Italian athlete managed to manage her emotion and keep calm: ‘I usually feel the weight of responsibility a lot, but for these races I tried to stay calm. I only thought about skiing,’ she says proudly.
Figure Skating: Daniel Grassl runner-up
On January 18th, at Palavela, the crowd did not stop cheering for a second. In the Men single figure Skating, three nations stood out above the rest: Japan, Italy and South Korea. First and foremost were the acrobatic jumps of Yūma Kagiyama, who achieved the gold medal with more than 289 total points. The Japanese is used to standing on the podium, having won silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. He’s followed in second place by the Italy’s Daniel Grassl, who had the best performance of the day (over 186 points, standing ovation). After him, Jun-hwan Cha, from Korea, finished in third place. Excellent results also for the other two Japanese skaters, but they failed to cross the threshold of the podium. Unfortunately for Shun Sato, his falls penalized his game. At the beginning of the competition, he was the favoured for silver.
Great results also for Italy, who won the silver medal in men’s figure skating with a wonderful performance by Daniel Grassl, who scored a total of 280.56 points. “My goal was to come here and win a medal, and I am very happy about that – said the student-athlete. But I am even happier to have given the crowd a really good performance. I am always very nervous, and I also felt the pressure to maintain yesterday’s result, but I am very pleased with how I am learning to manage my anxiety better and better”. Although Grassl did not live in the Olympic village these days, he was very enthusiastic about the atmosphere at the Fisu Games. He had the opportunity to meet student-athletes who, like him, try to reconcile sport and study. Grassl, who dreamed of being an actor as a child, is studying filmmaking because he would also like to work in the world of cinema and, in the future, pursue a second degree in psychology. He says that films saved him during a very difficult time in his life. That is why his performance today, on the notes of Human by Stefano Lentini and Tom Baxter, was even more emotional.
Margherita Cecere Bronze in the Giant Slalom
For Margherita Cecere, it is payback day. After two unsuccessful races in the combined and the Super G, the skier from Torino won bronze in the giant slalom on 18 January on the Olympic 23 slope at Melezet in Bardonecchia. For the Torino Polytechnic student, the first medal at the FISU Games has a very special flavour, earned in a hard-fought race against top athletes and in difficult weather conditions. 2:07.61 was the overall time of the two heats, one second three hundredths behind Sue Piller from Switzerland, who finished in 2:06.58. Second place went to another Swiss student-athlete, Delphine Darbellay (2:07.18).
“I am satisfied – Cecere’s first words – also because it was very windy, but I skied well”. In the previous races, the combined on Wednesday 15 and the Super G on Friday 17, Cecere had failed to finish. This time, however, the outcome was different: “The giant slalom is my speciality,” she commented beaming, “while the slalom I had not done for a year.” Supported throughout by the warmth of the home crowd, now Cecere, a 21-year-old maths student for engineering, can enjoy her success: “I will go and celebrate with my teammates,” she says. With her bronze medal, on the same day as Martina Vozza’s gold in the Paralympic giant slalom and Daniel Grassl’s silver in the men’s individual skating, Italy rises to seven medals in the overall ranking of nations.
Having come second to last, Cecere also cherished the dream of the silver medal, but Sue Piller’s extraordinary performance allowed the Swiss skier to take gold, overtaking her compatriot Darbellay, who had been first until then. For both were their first medals at the FISU Games.
