W stays for World, W stays for Women: the athletes from Val Gardena have always distinguished themselves at the top of world sports in various disciplines. Val Gardena has always been considered the valley of sport and sportsmen and women, for several reasons… for the possibility of doing sports and disciplines, for the several athletes that come here to train, for the numerous champions of the past, and for the attention towards the youths, the champions of tomorrow.

There are several female skiers, but also several other athletes who have succeeded in figure skating, biathlon, cross-country skiing, tennis, ski jumping or freestyle.

In Val Gardena, there are legends like Isolde Kostner – 1 silver and 2 bronze medals at the Olympics, as well as 15 victories and 51 World Cup podiums, athletes in activity like the Delago sisters Nadia and Nicol, with podiums, victories and Olympic medals under their belts, but also many promising young talents.
Think of the news a few weeks ago, when in Crans Montana (Switzerland), among the 53 athletes at the starting gate of the World Cup Downhill race, five were from Val Gardena (the Delago sisters, the ”daughter of art” Teresa Runggaldier, Vicky Bernardi and Sara Thaler), all from the Ite Raetia Ski College in Ortisei.

Dolomites Val Gardena, moreover, has been supporting its most talented athletes for years, with a tailored programme, and this year the #valgardenaskiteam consists of Nicol Delago, Nadia Delago, Alex Vinatzer, Max Perathoner and Sara Thaler. Thanks to initiatives of this kind, the results are often surprising, as in the XXIII Winter Olympic Games in South Corea, when no less than 11 athletes from Val Gardena were part of the Italian National Team.

Sport in Val Gardena is in the DNA of the population, which counts less than 10.000 people. Here nothing is left to chance when it comes to introducing and nurturing young talents in different disciplines.
Skiing is undoubtedly the “home sport” and we must add to the athletes already mentioned names of past champions such as Giustina Demetz, or, more recently, Michaela Marzola and Verena Stuffer, but there are other stars who shine or have shone, such as the divine Carolina Kostner, the figure skater who won a bronze medal at 2014 Olympics, was World Champion in 2012 and won other two silver and three bronze medals at the World Championships.

And sometimes we also find Gardena athletes in sports that are not necessarily related to the mountains, such as the two tennis players Verena Hofer and Laura Mair, very strong at youth level and among the world’s top 800.

Keeping our feet on the snow, there are several other disciplines in which athletes from Val Gardena have competed or are competing: in biathlon, with Michela Ponza (bronze medal at the 2013 World Championships in the relay) and Alexia Runggaldier (bronze medal in the individual event at the 2017 World Championships in Hochfilzen); in cross-country skiing. where the names of Christina Kelder (who took part in two World Championships, in 2003 and 2005) and Karin Moroder (160 World Cup appearances, three Olympic and five World Championship appearances) stand out, and then again in ski jumping, with Elena Runggaldier (silver medal at the 2011 World Championships in Oslo), Evelyn Insam (three World Cup podiums) and Lisa Demetz, with two World Championships (2009 and 2011) and 25 World Cup appearances and, finally, in freestyle, where Silvia Bertagna's name shines (45 starts in freestyle World Cup competitions, with 1 win and 8 podiums, 1 crystal cup in Big Air 2018).