Italy's stars with Olympic Cross-Country on their doorstep: 'We will use the pressure to go faster'

For the Italians living within skiing distance to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games Cross-Country course, the preparations for the season of a lifetime have begun.

Simone Dapra (ITA), whose home is a mere sprint from the tracks in Val di Fiemme where the action kicks off on 7 February next year, is determined to make the competition a memorable one.

"For the Italian team, the next year is very important because we will have the Olympic Games in Val di Fiemme, and it is a good chance for a good result. I work and I believe in that event," the 27-year-old said after Italy finished in sixth place in the Men's Relay at the 2025 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim, Norway.

"It is more motivation when you race at home. Val di Fiemme is 5km from my house and it is very, very beautiful. For Tour de Ski's third stage this year, my family and friends were there and that was very motivational and beautiful."

Dapra's best individual result in the Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup season that just ended was a 12th place in the Sprint in Val di Fiemme. He said he will not change anything in his preparations ahead of the 2025/2026 season just because it is the season of a home Olympic Games.

"For the training, it is usually the same over the past years, it is just about working and working," Dapra said.

"After that, the result, I hope, is a good one for the next race, next season and the Olympic Games."

Caterina Ganz (ITA) made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022, where the competitions took place without any audience in the stands due to Covid regulations, her best result being an eighth place in the Women's Relay.

Her second Games will be very different, with stands filled with familiar faces, a short drive from where she lives.

"It's a little bit strange to have the Olympics at home because you always think that they'd be so far away – in China or America. Now the Olympic course is 10 minutes from my home," she said.

"And it will be amazing. It will be great, we will see. I like the track in Val di Fiemme. We just hope for the weather, because right now it is green.

Competing in her fifth World Championships at Trondheim 2025, the 29-year-old's best individual result was a 15th place in the 10km Interval Start Classic.

In the Women's Relay, Ganz finished in seventh place together with Anna Comarella (ITA), Maria Gismondi (ITA) and Martina Di Centa (ITA). In the Team Sprint, she and Federica Cassol (ITA) were the fastest duo in the qualifiers, claiming the fifth place in the final that still gave a feeling of "yes, we can do it" ahead of next year's big event.

With her 25th place, Ganz was the best placed woman in the 2024/2025 overall World Cup standings, agreeing that it is in the team events that Italy's women have their best chances for an Olympic Games medal on home snow.

"Maybe in the Team Sprint, maybe in the Relay, maybe in the Sprint," Ganz said.

"In the team events, you have more of a possibility that something could happen."

Generally, she has a strong believe in the Italian women's team.

"We are six or seven women; there are Sprint girls, there are distance girls and I think that if we work together it will better," she said.

In the Italian men's team, one man stands out from the group as the host nation's main medal hope.

The Milano Cortina Games will be the last dance for 34-year-old Federico Pellegrino (ITA), who will hope to turn his two consecutive Olympic Sprint silver medals into a gold before bowing out from an exceptional career.

In the 2024/2025 season, Pellegrino claimed the second place in the Val di Fiemme Skiathlon, became vice Sprint World Champion and finished in fourth place in the overall standings, showing that he will be in it for the medals next year too.

"Let's see if it will be the perfect way to end my career, by giving my best, and in Italy with all the fans and family," the 2017 Sprint World Champion Pellegrino said, looking ahead to the home Olympic Games.

"The Italian goal is to get a medal in a team event, and since I've won two silver medals at the Olympic Games, but in individual races, this is something that I miss; a team medal.

"So I would like to give my best for sure, not only on the tracks but by helping my teammates to grow and maybe to have this good experience to win a medal with my teammates."

For his teammates, the 2025/2026 season is the last chance to watch and learn from one of the most decorated Italian Cross-Country skiers, before he hangs up his skis after the Games.

"It's an incredible feeling because with 'Pelle' there is this aura around him," Giovanni Ticco (ITA) said.

Ticco came to Trondheim 2025 with the aim to do the 50km Mass Start Free, but ended up skiing in the Sprint as well as the 10km Interval Start Classic and the Relay, where he, Dapra, Pellegrino and Davide Graz finished in sixth place, less than 10 seconds from the podium.

Ticco agrees with Dapra that the Italian team need to do anything differently to get closer to the medals in Val di Fiemme.

"We just have to keep working, to keep believing, step by step. We don't want to stay here, we want to want more and more, and this is what we want to improve," he said.

Just like several of his teammates, Ticco lives 10 minutes from the Olympic course.

"It's where I have always been training, every day, every week, so it's useless to say that it's an incredible emotion because I don't know how many athletes can (compete in a major event on their home track). Yes, Klaebo (did it in Trondheim), but I want to be there and do great stuff," he said.

With hundreds of thousands of people in the stands, the Trondheim World Championships gave the Italians an important experience of competing at a major event.

"It's an incredible feeling, because it feels like you're in the capital city of Cross-Country skiing. There are a lot of people all around the tracks and you just feel this incredible feeling that these people give to you and it is a big chance to grow, also in this aspect, because the audience could both give you more or take more," said Ticco, whose best result in the past winter also came on home snow, a 16th place in the 10km Interval Start Free in Cogne, Italy.

"You have to be ready for this and it's a great experience because I don't know in which other part of the world that there will be this many people to watch a Cross-Country race, so I just try to enjoy it as much as I can."

To enjoy it will also be an important task for the Italians as winter sports fans from all over the world turns their eyes towards the mountainous region of Trentino, three hours northeast of Milano.

"There will be some pressure, because you race at home, with all the friends, staff and everyone there expecting you to do something great because you're at home, but we will also enjoy this pressure and use it to go faster, Ticco said.

"With the advice of Pellegrino, we also work on this, just to be ready for this day and not arriving there and have fear. So we train a lot, we want to know the new tracks, because there are new tracks, and learn how to do it and to be ready."

And for once, the Italians will not have to worry about the quality of their carbohydrate loading.

"For us Italians, we have to eat well and eat our pasta every day, so also in that aspect it will be amazing," Ticco said.