Alberto Tomba: from the city to the summit

The Napapijri Bulletin is a monthly editorial project that tells the extraordinary stories of extraordinary people. Modern explorers, friends of the brand, cultural icons: each month, The Bulletin celebrates those who dare to abandon the known maps to chart unexpected territories.

Alberto Tomba: from the city to the summit

There's something poetic in the story that unites Napapijri and Alberto Tomba, and it all goes back to one date: 1987. While Napapijri was born as a brand, Alberto achieved his first World Cup victory right at Sestriere, inaugurating a legendary career. Two parallel stories that begin at the same moment and share the same philosophy of contradictions. Now these intersections are celebrated in "1.14", a documentary presented at the Milano Film Festival dedicated to the legendary alpine skiing champion and produced by Napapijri.

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"1.14" takes its name from those famous 1.14 seconds of advantage that Tomba put between himself and the second-place finisher in the first run of the giant slalom at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. A margin that, in the documentary, becomes a symbol of much more: the distance between the icon and the man, between the public figure and the private one.
The documentary tells of the contradictions that made Tomba so fascinating: millimetric precision on skis against exuberance off the slopes, fierce concentration in competition alongside the contagious joy that exuded from his every appearance. It's precisely in these dichotomies that the true story hides, the one that goes beyond medals and records.

"1.14" takes its name from those famous 1.14 seconds of advantage that Tomba put between himself and the second-place finisher in the first run of the giant slalom at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. A margin that, in the documentary, becomes a symbol of much more: the distance between the icon and the man, between the public figure and the private one.
The documentary tells of the contradictions that made Tomba so fascinating: millimetric precision on skis against exuberance off the slopes, fierce concentration in competition alongside the contagious joy that exuded from his every appearance. It's precisely in these dichotomies that the true story hides, the one that goes beyond medals and records.

"One morning I thought of going to school with skis on...". This is how his story begins, tracing the map of a journey into the world of competitive sports as a vocation that has followed him since childhood. A journey that led him to 51 World Cup victories and three Olympic golds. Calgary, Albertville. Names of places very far from his Bologna, yet now part of the geography of Italian sports history. The biggest challenge was growing up traveling alone. A city boy who discovered he could win against a generation of champions born and raised among snowy slopes.
Until worldwide success and inevitable media pressure. "I was condemned to victory". From the garden of his estate in the Bologna hills, an now-adult Alberto looks back at the carefree and spontaneous boy who found himself facing press scrutiny, until his retirement in 1998, at only thirty years old.

Born in Bologna but a mountain dominator, Alberto perfectly embodies the spirit of those who have always lived on the border between apparently opposite worlds.
From the surgical precision of his skiing to his famous exuberance; from the unshakeable concentration necessary to dominate the gates, to the pure joy he brought to every race, to the authentic character of the irrepressible champion that everyone remembers, this brief portrait seeks to distill that margin of difference that made Alberto Tomba a sporting legend defined by rare genuineness.

Born in Bologna but a mountain dominator, Alberto perfectly embodies the spirit of those who have always lived on the border between apparently opposite worlds.
From the surgical precision of his skiing to his famous exuberance; from the unshakeable concentration necessary to dominate the gates, to the pure joy he brought to every race, to the authentic character of the irrepressible champion that everyone remembers, this brief portrait seeks to distill that margin of difference that made Alberto Tomba a sporting legend defined by rare genuineness.