Italy wins mixed team snowboard parallel-slalom gold at 2025 FIS World Championships
Elisa Caffont and Maurizio Bormolini beat compatriots Gabriel Messner and Jasmin Coratti in an all-Italian final Sunday on the Corviglia piste in Engadin, Switzerland.
Italians lead every split from qualification to finish line
Caffont and Bormolini clocked the fastest combined times in every stage, starting with morning qualification and carrying the pace through the quarter-finals and semi-finals. They hugged the stubbies, kept edge angles shallow and timed board-to-board crossovers to the hundredth of a second. Crew working the course said the pair’s inside-ski pressure on the hair-pin gates threw almost no spray, a tell-tale sign of minimal speed bleed. Their biggest cushion came in the semi against Austria’s Andreas Prommegger and Sabine Payer — 0.74 s, the day’s widest knockout margin.
Bormolini rebounds after individual exit
One day earlier Bormolini straddled a gate in the men’s parallel-slalom quarter-final, ending his solo medal bid. “Yesterday was a difficult race for me, because I made some mistakes,” he said, goggles still fogged from sprinting uphill to greet Caffont. “Today, I wanted to take my revenge.” The 28-year-old used a reset ritual—three slow breaths while pressing his gloves together—recommended by recent sports-psychology sessions. Caffont, also an early casualty on Saturday, said overnight video review showed both riders over-rotating on the blue course’s final flush, a flaw they fixed before the first team run.
Austrian veterans grab bronze as Swiss clipped again
Prommegger, 37, and Payer, 34, used late-pressure carving to edge Switzerland’s Dario Caviezel and Julie Zogg in the small final, upgrading their 2023 silver to bronze. Swiss hopes faded earlier when Caviezel clipped an orange stubby in the semi, drawing an automatic DQ and handing Italy a walk-over. It is the second straight Worlds where gate contact has derailed the Swiss; in 2023 Bakuriani, Zogg’s tail flick produced the same heart-break, though she still salvaged bronze with a different partner.
Italian depth puts three squads in quarter-finals
National coach Matteo Dalla Costa entered four teams; three reached the last eight, a payoff from new parallel-specific indoor lanes near Bolzano. Caffont credits the group vibe: “We’re all really good friends, so for sure it was better to do the race together.” Timing provider Alge reports Italian riders logged the four fastest individual runs of the day across both genders, depth no other nation matched.
Back-to-back titles for Italy in event’s two-edition history
Sunday’s win gives Italy consecutive golds since the mixed-team parallel slalom debuted at the 2023 Worlds. Aaron March, half of the inaugural champions, returned with Elisa Fava but the pair exited in the quarter round and placed sixth. “Standards rise every season; if you’re not 100 per cent on your edges, the field punishes you,” March said. FIS race director Uwe Beier notes the average winning margin has fallen from 1.10 s in 2023 to 0.58 s this year, proof that tactical precision is spreading.
Source: FIS communications, Engadin timing sheets