Italian Skiing Great Alberto Tomba Reflects on His Career in a New Film with Napapijri
Condemned to win.
It was 1987. The world’s population hit five billion for the first time, Three Men and a Baby was the biggest movie of the year, The Bangles topped the Billboard charts, and in Sestriere, Italy, a 20-year-old Italian skier called Alberto Tomba won his first World Cup title. Tomba would go on to win a total of 50 Alpine Skiing World Cup stages, as well as two Olympic golds in Calgary in 1988, a gold and a silver in 1992, and a further silver medal in 1994, as the preeminent downhill skier of his era.
At the same time Bomba was carving out a name for himself on the slopes, across the French-Italian border at the foot of Mont Blanc, the Napapijri outdoor brand was founded as a maker of outdoor bags. The two alpine legends have now come together with the new documentary 1.14—An Alberto Tomba Story.
The film, which premiered out of competition at the Milan Film Festival on June 6, shows Tomba looking back on his career: in an attic full of trophies, race bibs, and memorabilia; in the farmland that surrounds his home; and in the official Alberto Tomba fan club, walls completely covered by pictures, postcards, and newspaper clippings.
Named for the 1.14 second lead Tomba had after round one at the Calgary Olympics, the documentary explores not only how Tomba changed professional skiing but also how it changed him from a shy, city kid in Bologna to an outgoing, wine-swilling superstar of alpine sports. Ultimately it is about the gaps that exist in all of us, the difference in who we perceive ourselves to be compared with how others perceive us. Tomba admits that he retired from professional skiing while he was “still strong,” winning his last event, and that the desire to return ‘comes after two, three, five, even 10 years.”
“I was always condemned to victory,” he remarks at one point. Whether his success was predestined or a result of a ferocious competitive energy, 1.14 contextualizes the nuances of an iconic sportsman and shows that even once the skis have been hung up, the story continues.
