We hadn’t seen Lisa Vittozzi smiling like this in a long time — relaxed, at peace, and quietly determined. After a difficult year marked by injury and uncertainty, the 2023–24 Crystal Globe winner is finally rediscovering her rhythm — and her smile.

The Italian had not been able to race on snow since that historic success, after an injury during pre-season training last November ruled her out of the past winter. She struggled to understand the cause of her back issues, which made it even harder for her to accept the situation and plan her comeback. Since spring, however, she has been working with some specialists in her home country and together with the national team, she has been following a dedicated program to try and get back in shape ahead of a very significant winter. Vittozzi herself admitted that had there not been the Olympics on home soil it would have been even harder for her to find the motivation to overcome this major setback.

But while sitting in her hometown of Sappada on this mild July, the 30-year-old is looking optimistically to the future after a few encouraging training camps, including one in Ruhpolding, where she got to train with her “heir” to the Crystal Globe: Franziska Preuss. The two have grown closer during the past winter, despite the distance and very opposite situations, but united by their similar stories of resilience.

BiathlonWorld: How are you? How is your recovery going?

Lisa Vittozzi: I'm doing well, the recovery is going smoothly and the training too — I’m seeing progress every week, so I’m happy.

BW: How are you managing your return? Can you explain a bit about the reasoning behind choosing to follow a recovery path “outside” the team?

LV: The choice was mainly made to allow me to gradually return to training, with a different schedule since I missed the full past season, and also to give me more peace of mind — without overdoing it or trying to catch up with anyone. Additionally, we didn’t want the rest of the team to compromise their own training to “wait for me”.

BW: You had a chance to train a bit with Franzi Preuss last month? How did that come about?

LV: In Ruhpolding, I trained with Franzi, who was super available (we reached out to see if she wanted to train some sessions together), we had fun and it was really nice. On top of that, she wrote to me many times over the winter to check on me and it really meant a lot

BW: How special is it to have rivals who are also “friends” and who care about you in difficult moments?

LV: As I said, it really means a lot. Sport is very competitive and usually there aren’t that many empathetic people in it, but she definitely was toward me, and I really felt that. But she wasn’t the only one — for example, Ingrid (Tandrevold) was also super sweet.

BW: Now that you are getting more and more into a more standard training pace, what will your next months look like?

LV: From July 30 to August 8 I’ll go to the Blinkfestivalen (’ll take part in both a training camp and races there to start evaluating where I am at), then at the end of August I’ll do the Italian Championships in Anterselva. In mid-September I’ll go to Livigno with the other girls, in October back to Anterselva, and finally to the One Loop in Munich... As for the rest of the autumn, we still have to decide. But it’s shaping up to be an exciting few months!

BW: How hard was it to watch the races on TV last season?

LV: Very hard — in fact, I didn’t really watch them at all. Ok, maybe a few, but honestly… how boring is biathlon without me? (laughs)

BW: Of course, a thought about next winter: how much motivation does having the Olympics at home give you?

LV: The Olympics are already a great goal in general; they give an athlete a lot of energy and motivation. Having them at home provides you that extra boost to give it your all. And last winter, for me, it was like that. I must be honest — I don’t know what I would have done if the Olympics hadn’t been on the horizon. But I like to think that everything happens for a reason.

Photos: Vanzetta-NordicFocus