The first Athlete of the Month of
2016 is Stefania Corradini. Find out about the young ski orienteer
and her exciting career path so far in the next lines.
Name: Stefania
Corradini
Country: Italy
Living place: Mora in
Sweden (from Castello di Fiemme in Italy)
Club: GS Castello
di Fiemme (Italy) and IFK Moras OK (Sweden)
Date of Birth:
July 1st 1996
Discipline: Ski orienteering
Career
Highlights: 10th place at sprint at European Youth Ski-O
Championships and 4th place relay at JWSOC in Estonia.
IOF
World Ranking: 78th
Two and a half years ago, Stefania
Corradini moved from Italy to Sweden. The ski orienteer had two big
goals for moving from her home country to the Nordic country.
Stefania is from the little village Castello di Fiemme in famous Val
di Fiemmi valley and she is daughter of Nicolò Corradini, who has
incredible results in ski orienteering.
– Since I was a child, I never
felt any expectation or pressure from my family. My parents always
let us choose which sport to do.
She took part in many different sports
when she was younger, like handball, swimming, alpine skiing,
football and of course also ski orienteering.
– I remember my first SkiO race as
a funny thing. I was maybe 12 –13 years old and I was competing
with my brother, we got lost but we had so much fun. This was my
first time I got in touch with SkiO and after that I started to race
more often.
The decision
When she was almost 15, Stefania chose
to focus on ski-orienteering, orienteering and cross country. At the
age of 17 she decided to go Sweden and the ski orienteering gymnasium
in Mora in the middle of Sweden – almost 2000 kilometres from home.
– I moved to Mora in august 2013.
I have to thank Signar Eriksson and Erik Svensson, who gave me the
possibility to move to Mora and do this wonderful experience that no
one from Italy had done before, says Stefania. – Sweden
thinks in a different way concerning young people that want to be
athletes in the future. Here you have the possibility to focus both
on school and on sport. Unfortunately, we do not have such
possibilities in Italy, that’s why I moved.
In Sweden her goal was to grow, both as
a person and as an athlete.
– I wanted to be good both at
school and in sport. It wasn’t easy to move, a lot of things were
different and I didn’t know the language.
Not an easy start
She got both a new country and a new
language.
– When I moved to Mora I did not
know the language. In the beginning I spoke English. But the school
is in Swedish so I tried to learn it quite fast. The first month at
school was not so easy, because I did not understand what anybody was
saying. I started to speak some words of Swedish before Christmas and
everything became much easier. Swedish is quite different in
comparison with Italian, both regarding the pronunciation and the
grammar.
– How do you like köttbullar
(Swedish meat balls) and other Swedish food?
– I have to say that the food
culture is different. We eat in a different way in Italy. I do like
the Swedish food and köttbullar as well.
– What do you miss from Italy?
– Certainly my family, the
mountains, the sun and the food. It wasn’t easy in the first
months, but then I started to speak a little Swedish and got more and
more used to the Nordic culture. It might look easy to move to
another country, but you have to change many of your habits and it
can be hard.
– You feel welcome and part of
something bigger. Everybody is so kind and helpful. I want to thank
the ski gymnasium in Mora, all the coaches and the teachers. They
gave and give me such an amazing possibility to grow in all different
ways.
Stefania lives at the school
accommodation, and shares a small apartment with another girl.
One of the biggest ever
Stefania’s father Nicolò won his
first World Championship in 1994. Since then he has won several gold
medals.
– What is the most important you have
learned from your father?
– I have learned a lot from him,
both regarding life and sport. The most important thing is perhaps to
never give up, the hard work pays off and that even the best fall
down sometimes. It is important to love what you are doing; it
doesn’t matter what is it.
She has a sister, Anna (22), and a
brother, Francesco (18). He competes in both SkiO and in cross
country.
– We push each other and train a
lot together.
Big goal in February
Stefania prepared well before this
winter.
– I was at home in Val di Fiemme
all summer and trained a lot. Heading back to Mora the preparation
continued as planned, but for a time with less skiing than wanted.
There has been very little snow for the
most part of this winter. Before Christmas she travelled to Norway.
– I’m glad I had the opportunity
to do some SkiO before heading home for Christmas. In Italy it was
still warm and there is only artificial snow, which makes it harder
for SkiO. The SkiO season hadn’t started in Italy because of the
lack of snow.
Stefania’s main goal for the winter
is to be in a good shape at the Junior World Championships and do
well in the competitions there.
– Now my shape is getting better
and better.
– How has you level progressed?
– It’s getting higher and
higher. I have the fortune to train with some of the best ski
orienteers in Mora and that gives me a lot of motivation. My
philosophy is to go all in and I am trying to push myself as much as
possible in every race, being able to have some splits like the best
girls, but I frequently make some big mistakes that compromise the
final result.
The future
In early summer she will finish the
last of her three years in Mora.
– I do not know what my future
will be like. Maybe I will move to Falun, close to Mora, maybe back
home. We will see what happens. Either way I will keep training and
try to be even better.
