Paola “Paoletta” Magoni, daughter of a carpenter, started racing in downhill and in 1980, won her first Italian title and won a medal at the European Junior Championships at only 15. She débuted in the World Cup slalom one year later. At the first World Junior Championships in 1982 she won gold in the combined. In 1984 she won the slalom at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, the first Olympic gold for an Italian female alpine skier. It was a surprise victory, since Magoni had never achieved a place on the podium in the World Cup, with a sixth place as the best result of her career to that point. One month later she made her first podium (third) in a World Cup race. Her only World Cup victory came in 1985 in the slalom at Pfronten, West Germany. In the same year she won a bronze medal in the slalom at the World Championships in Bormio, Italy.
Magoni continued to compete in the World Cup until the end of the 1987-88 season, without significant further results. At the Italian Championships she won 10 medals: two in downhill, one in giant slalom, six in slalom and one in combined, including five titles – four in slalom and one in combined. She is the sister of a number of sporting siblings, including brother Livio, coach of the Italian B team in alpine skiing and later of foreign teams, and Oscar, a former Serie A soccer player and later coach. She is not related, however, to Lara Magoni, World Championships silver medalist in the slalom and a three-time Olympian.
Italy