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12/23/2025
Italian alpine skiers working with Mapei Sport ready for Milan-Cortina 2026
Italian alpine skiers working with Mapei Sport are ready for Milan-Cortina 2026.The center has been testing athletes and helping them with their fitness training for over twenty years
Ahead of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Games, the Italian Alpine Skiing National Team strengthens its partnership with the Mapei Sport Research Center. For more than two decades, the Center has provided Italian athletes with comprehensive functional assessment tests and cutting-edge performance analysis. Leading Italian skiers, including Sofia Goggia and Dominik Paris, have participated in an extensive program of physical assessment and injury prevention.
For the sixth Olympics and the fourth in a row, the Italian Alpine Ski Team has turned to the services of Mapei Sport Research Center. Before the start of the World Cup season and in view of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games, the best Italian skiers went to the Center in Olgiate Olona (Province of Varese, Italy) to undergo the usual physical tests to optimise their ski training. Under the watchful eye of the Chief Executive and Medical Director of Center, Claudio Pecci, and the Chief Operating Officer and Head of the Human Performance Lab, Ermanno Rampinini, Sofia Goggia, Dominik Paris and their teammates took standard functional assessment tests, which included symmetry and control tests, health checks with a focus on injury prevention, and fitness testing.
The partnership between Mapei Sport and the Italian Winter Sports Federation, presided over by Flavio Roda, has been going on for over 23 years now (there was a brief hiatus in 2009-2012). Since then, every member of the Italian Alpine Ski team, including the youngest talents, undergoes two assessment sessions-a-year: one at the beginning of training in April-May and another just before the start of the competitive season in October-November. The battery of tests consists of a series of assessments to measure what are considered to be the most important physiological parameters for high-performance alpine skiing. After taking a range of anthropometric measurements, the athletes undergo Functional Movement Screening (FMS). Next, tests are carried out to measure the explosive strength of their lower limbs based on various types of jump tests, their trunk strength, and their aerobic power through an ergometer test on a stationary bike. Finally, a neuromuscular fatigue assessment test is carried out using a special motorised press named after the person who designed it, Professor Mognoni.
Italian skier Nadine Trocker takes part in strength testing of the lower limbs, part of the comprehensive assessment program conducted on athletes of the Italian Alpine Skiing National Team in Val Senales, South Tyrol.
In view of the forthcoming Olympic Games, the 10th research tender for recent graduates in sports science, named after Aldo Sassi, the first director of the Mapei Sport Research Center, was specifically dedicated to “Track training and muscular fatigue in alpine skiing.” The researcher, Giulia Pelizzatti, is carrying out studies with the support of the Mapei Sport staff, focusing on quantifying the neuromuscular fatigue induced by specific training on snow, making use of her direct experience in this field. She was formerly an alpine skier and, after specialising in physical training for mountain sports, is now a ski instructor and coach.
The findings that have emerged will be of great benefit to anybody keen to get back on their skis or snowboard. While now is the time for top athletes to be at their best for the most important events of the year, it is also important for amateur skiers to remember the importance of pre-skiing physical training. This type of training has two purposes: to prevent 'leg fatigue' from limiting their enjoyment out on the slopes and to help reduce the risk of injuries. That is why Mapei Sport has developed a personalised pre-skiing training program to meet the specific needs of skiers of all standards. The Training Department of the Mapei Sport Research Center — the same place where athletes belonging to the Italian National Alpine Ski Team carry out regular functional testing — can help anyone improve and dream big.
Mapei Sport researchers working with Emanuel Lamp on the snow to evaluate the effects of an on-slope training session on skiers.
