Deborah Compagnoni

{{Infobox alpine ski racer

| name = Deborah Compagnoni

| honorific_suffix = Golden Collar of Sports Merit

| image = Deborah Compagnoni (cropped).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Compagnoni in March 2010

| full_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|6|4|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Bormio, Italy

| death_date =

| death_place =

| residence =

| height = {{convert|165|cm|ftin|abbr=on}}

| wcdebut = 1986

| retired = 1999

| event =

| club =

| coach =

| olympicteams =

| olympicmedals = 4

| olympicgolds = 3

| worldsteams =

| worldsmedals = 3

| worldsgolds = 3

| wcseasons = 14

| wcwins = 16

| wcpodiums = 44

| wcoveralls = 0 (4th 1998 & 1999)

| wctitles = 1 (Gs 1997)

| show-medals = yes

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCount|total=yes

|Olympic Games|3|1|0

|World Championships|3|0|0

}}

{{MedalCount | total = yes

| Super-G | 2 | 0 | 1

| Giant | 13 | 10 | 8

| Slalom |1 | 5 | 4

}}

Deborah Compagnoni Golden Collar of Sports Merit (born 4 June 1970) is an Italian former Alpine skier who won three gold medals at the 1992, 1994, and 1998 Winter Olympics.{{cite web|url=https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/athlete-biography.html?sectorcode=AL&competitorid=10931|title=Deborah Compagnoni - Athlete Information|publisher=fis-ski.com|accessdate=20 February 2021}}

Biography

Deborah Compagnoni was born in Bormio, northern Lombardy, and skied with the G.S. Forestale club.

Compagnoni soon attracted attention for her great talent. Her career was always marked by major successes, but also by serious accidents.{{Cite news |last=Shulman |first=Ken |date=27 January 1994 |title=Compagnoni's Bold and Painful Course Toward Super-G Gold |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/27/sports/IHT-compagnonis-bold-and-painful-course-toward-superg-gold.html |work=The New York Times}} After her first major victory, the World Junior title in giant slalom, and her first podium in World Cup, she broke her right knee in the Val d'Isère downhill. After surgery, she decided to stop competing in downhill races, where her talent could have permitted even greater successes than those she obtained in her still outstanding career.

Compagnoni won her first race in the World Cup in 1992. She also won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics of the same year, again in the super-G; however, while racing the giant slalom one day later, she destroyed her left knee.

In the following years, she left the speed disciplines (downhill and Super-G), confirming herself as one of the best giant slalom specialists. Her fragile knees hindered Compagnoni's practice activity, and limited the number of victories in the World Cup; however, she always arrived in her best shape for the major championships. In 1994, at the Lillehammer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the giant slalom, a feat she repeated four years later in Nagano. In 1998, she won also a silver medal in the Slalom, finishing second by only 0.06 seconds.

Compagnoni won the World Championship in giant slalom in 1996; in the following year's edition, she repeated the victory, alongside winning with the slalom title, a feat never accomplished by any other Italian female skier. She won a total of 16 races in the Alpine Skiing World Cup (13 giant slalom, 2 super-G, and 1 slalom), plus a giant slalom World Cup in 1997.

Deborah Compagnoni is considered the best Italian female skier of all time, the equal of famous male champions like Gustav Thöni and Alberto Tomba. The World Cup skiing track in her native Santa Caterina Valfurva has been named after her.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

She is married to Alessandro Benetton, and they have three children: Agnese, Tobias, and Luce; they live in Ponzano Veneto, Italy.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110615153619/http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article3721700.ece "A life in the day: Alessandro Benetton, retail magnate", The Sunday Times, John Follain, 13 April 2008][http://www.elle.com/Life-Love/Entertaining-Design/Alessandro-Benetton-Future-Perfect "Alessandro Benetton: Future Perfect", Elle, Alexandra Marshall, 6 January 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726185325/http://www.elle.com/Life-Love/Entertaining-Design/Alessandro-Benetton-Future-Perfect |date=26 July 2011 }} They separated in 2021.{{Cite web |last=Bambini |first=Nicola |date=25 January 2021 |title=Deborah Compagnoni and Alessandro Benetton, "marriage over" (after 13 years) |trans-title=Deborah Compagnoni e Alessandro Benetton, «matrimonio finito» (dopo 13 anni) |url=https://www.vanityfair.it/people/italia/2021/01/25/deborah-compagnoni-alessandro-benetton-matrimonio-finito-dopo-13-anni-figli-oto |work=Vanity Fair |language=it}} Her brother Jacopo Compagnoni, a fellow Alpine skier, died during an avalanche on Monte Sobretta on 16 December 2021, at the age of 40.{{cite web|url=https://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/12/16/news/jacopo_compagnoni_sorella_deborah_morto_incidente_valanga_valfurva-330421696/|title=Morto Jacopo Compagnoni, il fratello di Deborah travolto da una valanga in Valfurva|work=La Repubblica|date=16 December 2021}}

World Cup results

=Season titles=

Season	Discipline
class="wikitable"
1997	Giant slalom

=Season standings=

rowspan="2" width="4%" \| Season ! colspan="2" \| Overall ! colspan="2" \| Downhill ! colspan="2" \| Super-G ! colspan="2" \| Giant slalom ! colspan="2" \| Slalom ! colspan="2" \| Combined
class="wikitable" width=60% style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
class="hintergrundfarbe5" ! width="5%" \| Place ! width="5%" \| Points ! width="5%" \| Place ! width="5%" \| Points ! width="5%" \| Place ! width="5%" \| Points ! width="5%" \| Place ! width="5%" \| Points ! width="5%" \| Place ! width="5%" \| Points ! width="5%" \| Place ! width="5%" \| Points
align="left" \| 1987/88	40.	24	22.	12	17.	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
align="left" style="background-color:#EAEAEA" \| 1988/89	colspan="14" style="background-color:#EAEAEA" \| did not participate due to an injury
align="left" \| 1989/90	52.	19	–	–	22.	9	24.	10	–	–	–	–
align="left" \| 1990/91	57.	12	–	–	–	–	17.	12	–	–	–	–
align="left" \| 1991/92	11.	590	–	–	15.	126	4.	344	19.	120	–	–
align="left" \| 1992/93	11.	535	–	–	6.	230	8.	200	17.	105	–	–
align="left" \| 1993/94	6.	841	–	–	18.	91	style="background-color:#FFDAB9"\|3.	style="background-color:#FFDAB9"\|515	12.	195	12.	40
align="left" \| 1994/95	12.	524	–	–	25.	74	5.	325	14.	125	–	–
align="left" \| 1995/96	22.	346	–	–	–	–	6.	280	30.	66	–	–
align="left" \| 1996/97	4.	967	–	–	–	–	style="background-color:#F7F6A8"\|1.	style="background-color:#F7F6A8"\|560	style="background-color:#FFDAB9"\|3.	style="background-color:#FFDAB9"\|407	–	–
align="left" \| 1997/98	4.	912	–	–	–	–	style="background-color:#DCE5E5"\|2.	style="background-color:#DCE5E5"\|565	6.	304	–	–
align="left" \| 1998/99	22.	347	–	–	–	–	9.	256	23.	91	–	–

=Races victories=

These are her world cup victories.[https://books.google.com/books?id=0EniB-D24w4C&dq=Deborah+Compagnoni&pg=PA919 Encyclopædia Britannica almanac 2008]

Date ! Location ! Race
class="wikitable"
26 January 1992	Morzine	Super-G
7 March 1993	Morzine	Super-G
5 December 1993	Tignes	Giant slalom
11 December 1993	Veysonnaz	Giant slalom
5 January 1994	Morzine	Giant slalom
8 January 1995	Haus im Ennstal	Giant slalom
2 March 1996	Narvik	Giant slalom
29 December 1996	Semmering	Slalom
17 January 1997	Zwiesel	Giant slalom
18 January 1997	Zwiesel	Giant slalom
26 January 1997	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Giant slalom
15 March 1997	Vail	Giant slalom
25 October 1997	Tignes	Giant slalom
21 November 1997	Park City	Giant slalom
19 December 1997	Val-d'Isère	Giant slalom
6 January 1998	Bormio	Giant slalom

Honours

= Orders =

50px CONI: Golden Collar of Sports Merit Collare d'Oro al Merito Sportivo - 1996{{cite news|url=https://www.coni.it/it/attivita-istituzionali/onorificenze/home/benemerenzedettaglio.html?id=104299 |title=Deborah Compagnoni |publisher=Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano |work=Coni.it |language=it |access-date=9 May 2025}}