Omar Visintin won Italy's eighth
medal of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Thursday when he
took bronze in the men's snowboard cross event.
Austria's Alessandro Hämmerle won the race and Canadian Éliot
Grondin took silver.
"I've been waiting for this medal for years and finally it
arrived," the 32-year-old Visintin told RAI television.
"I started the race a little slow and then did some overtaking.
"It wasn't something I wanted to do, but it depended on the fact
that the others started faster than me.
"Now I know that I'm good.
"I dedicate this medal to myself. I earned it".
Visintin came back to win a medal after hurting himself in a
nasty accident during a World Cup race two months ago.
The Italian Skiing Federation, meanwhile, said Thursday that
Sofia Goggia will not take part in Friday's Super G race in
Yanqing in order to focus on regaining fitness to be able to
defend her Olympics downhill title on Tuesday
The 29-year-old did intense physiotherapy after damaging
anterior cruciate ligaments in her knee and fracturing her
fibula in a World Cup race at Cortina d'Ampezzo late last month.
Goggia said Tuesday that she didn't know if she will be fit
enough to defend her downhill title.
She had been been in stunning form before the injury, winning
four out of five World Cup downhills this season and two Super G
races.
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