Massimiliano "Max" Blardone (born 26 November 1979) is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. He specialized in the discipline of

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

. Since 2016 he has been a sports commentator for RAI.

Biography

Born in Domodossola in the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

region of

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

Italy, Blardone made his World Cup debut at Sölden, Austria, in October

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. He made his first World Cup podium in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and his first victory came in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. Blardone won seven World Cup races and attained 25 podiums, all in giant slalom. He finished second in the giant slalom season standings in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, and third in

. Blardone represented Italy in three

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and six world championships. At the end of his career as an athlete he embarked on that of sports commentator of

alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...

in RAI, starting from the 2019-20 season he supports the commentator

Davide Labate Davide Labate (born 18 April 1972) is an Italian journalist from 1993 and alpine skiing commentator, broadcasting for Rai Sport from 2009. Biography A native of Messina, in the summer he returns to his Torre Faro, a seaside village near the ...

in the commentary on the men's competitions.

World Cup results

Season standings

Race podiums

* 7 wins – (7 GS) * 25 podiums – (25 GS)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

* Alpine skiers of Fiamme Gialle {{DEFAULTSORT:Blardone, Massimiliano 1979 births Living people People from Domodossola Italian male alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers of Italy Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Italian alpine skiing coaches 21st-century Italian people