Celina Seghi

Celina Seghi earned her first junior Italian national skiing medal in 1934 when she finished third in the slalom. In her first season as a senior, 1937, she won three gold medals in the slalom, downhill, and combined events, the first of over 25 national titles that she would collect over the course of her career. She also captured six silver and three bronze medals in her home country during this period. World War II interrupted her international career, and thus her only major podium finish came in the slalom at the 1950 World Championships, where she placed third. She had also taken gold in the slalom and silver in the combined at the 1941 World Championships, but these results were later nullified because only neutral and Axis-friendly countries had been allowed to take part.

Seghi competed in six events across two editions of the Winter Olympics – in 1948 and 1952 – and just missed a medal three times by placing fourth: in the downhill and combined in 1948 and in the slalom in 1952. She was also 7th in the giant slalom in 1952, joint-14th (with Laila Schou Nilsen of Norway) in the 1948 slalom, and joint-15th (alongside Switzerland’s Silvia Glatthard) in the 1952 downhill. She retired from active competition prior to the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games, but continued to ski into her 90s.