Industry News
Italian ski racer Sofia Goggia, known as ‘The Queen of Speed’ (“La Regina della Velocita”), broke two bones in her right lower leg earlier this year. For a recent photo shoot her lower right leg was clearly not magazine-cover-ready, so the photo editor decided to photoshop in a different foot so as not to show the extensive scar on her shin bone.
The hilarious mishap was documented by the skier herself in her Instagram Stories. The Instagram story shows the ski racer having a good laugh about it with Nonna Carla (“nonna” means ‘grandma’ in Italian). Goggia shared a video of her showing the magazine cover which shows her lying in bed cuddling her dog Belle to Nonna Carla.
Translated into English, the conversation between the pair goes something like this:
Sofia Goggia: “Look. It’s me and Belle. Do you like it?”
Nonna Carla: “Yes I love it. It’s so beautiful.”
Sofia Goggia: “What do you mean, beautiful? Look! Look at my feet. I have two left feet! Look, this one and this one, they are the same!”
Nonna Carla: “Oh my God! You are right! You’re still beautiful, my darling! You are so beautiful here, but don’t look at the feet, that hurts!”
It appears that the photo editor accidentally photoshopped in another left foot instead of a right foot, giving the Italian ski racer two rather odd-looking left feet. Goggia broke her leg during training on February 5 this year on the Casola Nera run in the Ponte di Legno Tonale ski area in Italy. La Regina della Velocita, The Queen of Speed, got her inside ski caught in a gate on a right turn while training for the World Cup in Soldeu, Andorra, sending the ski racer flying. Goggia was on her third training run when the accident happened. She had the fracture surgically fixed in the Madonnina Clinic in Milan, Italy. Her surgeons, Dr. Andrea Panzeri and Dr. Riccardo Accetta, confirmed that the skier had fractured her tibia and tibial malleolus in several places and the leg had to be set with a rod and seven screws.
It is not Goggia’s first serious injury: the 31-year-old skier has torn her ACL several times in both knees, fractured her tibial plateau more than once, fractured the fibular malleolus, suffered a compound radius fracture of the left arm, fractured her fibula, and last season famously fractured her hand during a race, however, still finished the Downhill in second place, and then returned the next day with a freshly operated hand to win the second Downhill race at St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The Italian speed specialist will certainly come back from this injury with plenty of determination to redeem herself after the 23/24 season ended in the middle in her battle for the Downhill Crystal Globe, which was won by Cornelia Hütter from Austria. Goggia has won the Downhill Crystal Globe a total of four times, in 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023, and will be back to defend her reputation as Queen of Speed in the 24/25 season. As the caption under her picture reads: “I’m afraid but I will still risk it!”
