“I already thought I knew my ski legends Thoeni Gross… And I thought they knew me. But it wasn’t like that. But it was a moment and I entered their lives. I wasn’t so excited when I worked with De Niro”. Giovanni Veronesi says it when presenting the docufilm ‘La valanga azzurra’ about the most successful Italian ski team ever, led by Gustavo Thoeni and Piero Gross in the 1970s, presented today at the Rome Film Festival.
“I wasn’t able to copy Gustavo completely, I would have liked to have a bit of his Beatles, but with the Beatles perhaps a little more calm and chalk, as they say, wouldn’t have hurt.” Piero Gross, former Olympic and world alpine skiing champion, says so, together with Gustavo Thoeni protagonists of the great adventure of the ‘blue avalanche’ which lasted over 10 years. Giovanni Veronesi dedicated a documentary film to the group of champions who dominated the white circus in the 1970s.
The two champions – winners, among other things, of five world cups, two Olympic golds and two silvers between them – were compared by the press of the time to the Bealtles (Thoeni) and the Rolling Stones (Gross). Rivals, but always friends and respectful of each other. They returned to this point again today at a press conference in Rome. “My rivalry with Gustavo? Rivalry is a resource of sport, without rivals you can’t do anything anymore, you are nobody and we wouldn’t be here talking to each other. In sport there is friendship, respect, they are rules that we learn. Enough read the rules of the Olympic Committee which unfortunately are not respected very much”.
In sport, Gross explains further, “you can also have contrasts, you can have a different character, but if there isn’t this respect in sport… I don’t understand it, I can’t understand. Why then would we have to hate Stenmark when he arrived instead I said: but how can we beat this? It’s not possible… you go fast, he doesn’t miss a corner, this one goes down and gives you two seconds, you can only say “well done”.
Then he recalls that even on the occasion of the ‘great disgrace’ done to Thoeni at the Innsbruck Winter Games in 1976, when he won gold by beating his teammate in the special slalom downhill (“Gustavo unfortunately lost the medal due to, let’s say so, of destiny”, he jokes), “Mario Cotelli had an introduction together with Oreste Peccedi (respectively technical director and coach of the Valanga azzurra, ed. We did 3-4 days of training in Brunico with Ingmar (Stenmark, ed.). ). Ingmar was coached by Hermann Nogler who told us it was a good track, similar to Innsbruck. We trained together and training with Stenmark gave us an extra boost. And luckily we did what we did.” he adds. “And perhaps in Innsbruck if either Fausto Radici or Bieler, who were in better shape than me, hadn’t crashed, because it seems to me that Franco Bieler was second or third after the first heat (in reality he was fourth, ed.), we would have achieved a hat-trick because it was a stronger team. Ingmar had to push a little more than he should and what happened happened”, he adds, recalling that the Swedish champion went out in the second heat after finishing ninth after the first.
Gustavo Thoeni himself then returns to the rivalry and friendship on the track: “The rivalry was certainly there, because each one tried to be faster than the other, a bit in training, which was certainly a great stimulus for both of them, even to myself. And then in the race – explains Thoeni – of course, it was a single sport, that is, everyone tries to be ahead of the other”.
A relationship of rivalry but also of friendship: “We were always together, even in training”. Then in the race “you definitely try to win. At that moment, if the other guy wins you get a little angry, but with yourself”, he explains.