Panathlon Cup, Athlete of the Year Tommaso Sala

As the December festivities approach, the traditional end-of-year date returns with the handing out of the Panathlon Club Lecco Awards and with a merry Christmas for the artists on schedule. The event that will take place on Tuesday December 13 at the “Cascina don Guanella” farm in Valmadrera – Piazza Rossi, 3 starting at 19.30.

It will be an opportunity to recognize the meritorious activity, for the current year, of the athletes, clubs, technicians or managers who have been champions during the current year. For 2022, the Lecco Panathlon Trophy, Athlete of the Year, was awarded to Tommaso Sala, 27-year-old from Kasatinovo, Alpine Ski World Cup team athlete, protagonist, first Lecco in slalom history, at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

In addition, special prizes were awarded, specifically to: Alizé Piana, 19 years old from Lecco, Junior Women’s Wakeboard Champion; Samuele Leone, 21, from Nibionno, 1st place and podium at the World Under 23 Cyclocross Championships in the USA, in
Team Riley “Test Events”; Federico Pellizzari, 21, of Mandello del Lario, Paralympic alpine skiing athlete and Italian champion; Cultural Sports Center Cortinova, Italian Sports Center League (CSI) champion, title
He won for the sixth time.

Speaking of awards, the December 13 gala will also be an opportunity for Lecco Panathlon Club President Andrea Mauri to take stock of his first year of tenure. And finally, why not, I wish you a happy birthday and
A prosperous 2023 for all members of the Business and Welcome Team.

Tommaso Sala, from Kazatinovo to the Winter Olympics

Twenty-seven years from Casanovo, Tommaso Sala, “Tommy” to his friends, was the first native of Lecco in the history of alpine skiing to be called up to the Winter Olympics. It happened last February when Sala was called up to the national team to compete in the giant slalom and special slalom in Beijing 2022. He “jumped” between the gates of the mighty skier giant of Brianza under the “Fiam Oro” of the state police, however, rebuilt between the “poles” of the race Slalom by taking eighth time in heat one, just a few hundredths from the podium. However, in the second, he failed to confirm his slide to the honorable 11th place for a rookie in the five-circuit competition.

But who is Tommaso Sala? Growing up in the small village of Rugredo in Kasatinovo, he took his “first steps” on skis thanks to the Lecco Ski Club school with coach Carlo Riva, who is still his trusted advisor today. Step by step Sala – who was also forced to spend most of the year in Bormio where, among other things, he earned his high school diploma – made his European Cup debut in 2013 and then the World Cup on December 13, 2015 in Val d’Isere. Introduction to the title of champion of Italy in slalom
He got the Pozza d Fassa in 2016 and the first success in the European Cup in 2019 in Val di Fassa.

Now permanently in the senior slalom national team, Sala is starting to climb the World Cup rankings in the 2021 season to make a quantum leap in 2022 with seventh-place finishes in Schladming in Austria and Cocheville in France.
Then his best finish, sixth, in Kitzbuehel, Austria: pass to Beijing 2022. And now? Now the first podium seems closer than ever to entering Lecco’s alpine skiing history again to the delight of mother Laura, from
Sister Valentina, his girlfriend Roberta Milesi (also promised a “pink avalanche”) and all those who believed in him.

Samuel Leon, the very young talent of mountain bike from Nibionno

Samuel Leon, born in 2001 from Nibionno, a young talent in mountain biking and cyclo-cross, will remember for a long time the 2022 season that started with prestigious success abroad in the blue jersey of the U-23 national team.
The podium with Nasheed Mameli at the World Cyclo-cross Championships in the Relay Team, in Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA), will remain in all respects in the history of this discipline. With only one regret. The Team Relay Test, a mixed team relay, was a “test event”, i.e. a test for demonstration purposes without medals awarded for this first edition. Samuel Leone, Silvia Persico, Lucia Bramatti, and Davide Tonati proved to be a classy combo, beating hosts Team USA with 7″ and Belgium with 16″.

After all, coach Daniele Pontoni’s words were clear: «I do not hide my happiness. These guys are going to make history, because this was the first time for a Relay Team in a World Championship Cyclo-Cross event.” Then Samuel
He also competed in the individual competition and finished an excellent 13th in the under-23 class, first for the Blues as a junior.
However, 2022 was an important year for the Nipponians, who were called up (registered in the Selle Italia Guerciotti Elite squad) also in the World Cup, Spanish Cup and European Championship with good placements. Then there was also a road blue call-up (raced for Cicli Manini’s team) in the Giro del Friuli, the National GP of Poland and fourth overall in Grave’s first Italian championship on dirt roads, even against professionals. Lyon, a graduate of agriculture (he would like to be a lumberjack), made his debut on the saddle at the age of 11 in the G5 class, then moved on to harder disciplines such as mountain biking and cyclo-cross, earning the distinction of results at youth level and being called up to the blue squad for the European Cup and World Cup. It is considered one of the blue promises.