Giovanni Franzoni of Italy won the prestigious men's alpine ski World Cup downhill on the Streif course in Kitzbühel, Austria, on January 24, 2026, marking his second victory in a week. The 24-year-old breakout star dedicated the win to his late teammate Matteo Franzoso and now eyes Olympic gold on home snow at the Milan Cortina Games. His success has thrust him into the spotlight ahead of the February events.
Giovanni Franzoni's victory in Kitzbühel, often called the 'Super Bowl of skiing,' came just a week after his first World Cup win in Wengen, Switzerland, on January 17, 2026. Prior to these triumphs, Franzoni had never podiumed in a World Cup event until securing third place in a super-G in Val Gardena last month.
The Italian skier, who turns 24 this year, expressed surprise at his rapid rise. “I didn’t expect to be in this position,” he said. “I knew I could do well but there’s a big difference between believing it and doing it. Now I’m trying to handle it all — the media attention, the physical part, the mental part … I just want to enjoy the Olympics. I know that I can do well, so I don’t see any reason to heap expectations onto myself.”
Franzoni's achievement carries deep personal meaning. He races in memory of his former roommate and teammate, Matteo Franzoso, who died in a preseason training crash in Chile last September, sparking discussions on ski safety. On the podium in Kitzbühel, Franzoni looked skyward and dedicated the win to Franzoso, with whom he had shared a room at the Hahnenkamm event a year earlier. “I made a promise to someone in paradise,” Franzoni said. “It’s a mix of emotions that I have a hard time describing.”
His win relegated Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, the overall World Cup leader, to second place, leaving the veteran in tears after eight years of trying to conquer the Kitzbühel downhill. Odermatt had won the super-G there the day before. “I was almost upset seeing him like that,” Franzoni said. “I understand how much he wanted to win that race and how many years he’s been fighting for it. But I don’t think it’s a tragedy for him, considering all the races he’s won.”
From Manerba del Garda near Lake Garda, Franzoni did not grow up in the mountains but took to skiing at nearby resorts like Ponte di Legno and Madonna di Campiglio. With his twin brother Alessandro, who became a ski instructor, he earned five medals—three golds, a silver, and a bronze—at the world junior championships in 2021 and 2022. A 2023 season-ending thigh injury from a super-G fall in Wengen slowed his progress, but he is now closing the gap on peers like Switzerland's Franjo von Allmen, who finished second to him in the 2022 junior downhill gold in Panorama, British Columbia.
The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics open next week, with men's skiing set for Bormio in Franzoni's home region of Lombardy, a three-hour drive from his hometown. He has never placed better than 17th in World Cup races there but aims high for the downhill on February 7. A win would make him the first Italian man to claim Olympic downhill gold since Zeno Colò in 1952 and only the fourth skier to take both the Kitzbühel and Olympic downhills in the same year, following Toni Sailer (1956), Franz Klammer (1976), and Beat Feuz (2022).
As a junior, Franzoni once raced against future tennis star Jannik Sinner, finishing 12th to Sinner's win in a 2009 giant slalom in San Sicario. Recently, they connected via Instagram, with Sinner offering encouragement and his phone number. “The fact that he wrote me means I must have done something big,” Franzoni said.
