Giovanni Franzoni claimed victory in the prestigious Kitzbühel downhill race, marking his second World Cup win in as many weeks as the Milan Cortina Olympics approach. The 24-year-old Italian dedicated the triumph to his late teammate Matteo Franzoso, turning personal tragedy into motivation. This success positions Franzoni as a medal hopeful on home snow.
Giovanni Franzoni's victory in the men's alpine ski World Cup downhill on the iconic Streif course in Kitzbühel, Austria, on January 24, 2026, has thrust the young Italian into the spotlight just ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The 24-year-old from Manerba del Garda secured his first World Cup podium with a third-place finish in a super-G in Val Gardena last month, followed by a breakthrough win in Wengen, Switzerland, a week before Kitzbühel. 'I didn’t expect to be in this position,' Franzoni 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.'
Franzoni's success carries deep emotional weight. He races in memory of his former roommate and teammate, Matteo Franzoso, who died in a preseason training crash in Chile last September. After crossing the finish line first in Kitzbühel, Franzoni looked skyward on the podium and dedicated the win to him. 'I made a promise to someone in paradise,' he explained. 'It’s a mix of emotions that I have a hard time describing.'
The result pushed overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt into second place, leaving the Swiss skier in tears after another failed attempt at the Kitzbühel downhill. Franzoni expressed empathy: 'I was almost upset seeing him like that … But I don’t think it’s a tragedy for him, considering all the races he’s won.' Odermatt had won the super-G there the day before.
Raised near Lake Garda, not in the mountains, Franzoni and his twin brother Alessandro took up skiing young. While Alessandro became an instructor, Giovanni earned five medals—three golds, a silver, and a bronze—at the 2021 and 2022 junior world championships. A 2023 thigh injury from a Wengen super-G sidelined him, but he has rebounded strongly.
The Olympics will feature men's skiing in Bormio, in Franzoni's home region of Lombardy. A downhill gold on February 7 would make him the first Italian man to win since Zeno Colò in 1952 and only the fourth skier to take both Kitzbühel and Olympic downhills in the same year. As a junior, Franzoni once raced against future tennis star Jannik Sinner, finishing 12th in a 2009 giant slalom that Sinner won.
