Natascia Leonardi Cortesi

Natascia Leonardi’s international cross-country skiing career began with an inauspicious 49th place in the 5 km classical at a February 1991 World Cup event. She first represented Switzerland at the Olympic Games in 1992, where she was 25th in the 15 km, 31st in the 30 km, and 9th in the 4x5 km relay. She missed the 1994 edition, but attended the 1997 World Championships, where she was 42nd in the 15 km freestyle and 59th in the 5 km classic. She returned to the Olympics in 1998 and, in the relay, seemed to have clinched the bronze medal alongside Brigitte Albrecht-Loretan, Sylvia Honegger, and Andrea Huber. An amazing final leg by Italy’s Stefania Belmondo, however, secured that nation the final podium spot by a margin of just under two seconds.

Leonardi’s next stop was the 1999 World Championships, where she was 27th in the 30 km classic and 28th in the 15 km freestyle. Her next major international championship was the 2002 Winter Olympics and, by then competing as Natascia Leonardi Cortesi, won a bronze medal in the relay with Albrecht (then Albrecht-Loretan), Huber, and Laurence Rochat. Leonardi Cortesi then had a best result of 23rd in the 30 km freestyle, in addition to a 10th-place finish in the relay, at the 2003 World Championships, and was 16th in the 10 km freestyle, 23rd in the 30 km classic, and 11th in the relay at the 2005 edition. Her final Olympic appearance came in 2006, where she was 16th in the 30 km, 24th in the 15 km skiathlon, and 11th in the relay.

Leonardi Cortesi won Switzerland’s prestigious Engadin Skimarathon three times (2003, 2005, and 2006) and remained active in cross-country skiing long after the 2006 Olympics. By 2005, however, the year that she won the Mezzalama Trophy with Christiane Nex and Gloriana Pellissier of Italy, she was finding more success in ski mountaineering. In 2006 she was crowned World Champion in the ski mountaineering discipline of the vertical race and remained active on the international scene in that sport through 2013.