Italy shines in Vysoká Pec with Cesaris win, multiple top-eight finishes

Lorenza Cesaris gave Italy the headline result in Vysoká Pec, winning the women’s giant slalom while Davide Fiorot finished second in the men’s race at the World Skate Inline Alpine Slalom World Cup stop in Czechia. Across the June 26 to June 28 event, Italy put skaters into the top eight in both disciplines and in both gender fields, a haul that marked one of its strongest all-around weekends of the season.

The giant slalom set the tone. Cesaris reached the top step on the women’s side, with Elisa Negrinelli fourth and Giulia Gamba sixth. In the men’s event, Fiorot was second and Mattia Pe placed sixth. The results mattered because the Vysoká Pec round drew several of the world’s best inline alpine specialists, giving Italy a deep international test rather than a soft field.

Italy backed that up on Sunday in slalom. Cesaris followed her giant slalom victory with a run the federation said would have ranked fourth overall in the men’s classification as well, a rare cross-field benchmark that underscored the speed and precision of her skating on the Czech course. Fiorot finished sixth in the men’s slalom, while Antonio Fanchini took eighth, giving Italy another pair of top-eight results to add to the medal from the previous day.

Rossana Castelli said she was proud of the team’s determination, concentration and group spirit, and the lineup behind the result showed why. FISR listed Fiorot, Cesaris, Pe, Fanchini, Gamba, Cristian Rondi, Angelica Quadrio and Anna Minali, who supported the squad from the sidelines while injured. The group carried the weight of a program that has begun to produce results across multiple skaters instead of relying on one standout performance.

The Vysoká Pec showing also fits a broader pattern. Cesaris won the final giant slalom World Cup stop in Latvia in 2025 and secured the overall giant-slalom title, while Fiorot earned his first career podium in that same finale. A May 2026 profile had already framed Cesaris as a leading figure in a still-little-known sport in Italy, one she discovered about 10 years earlier during a demonstration on Lake Iseo. In Vysoká Pec, that individual rise translated into a team result that suggested Italy is building more than a one-off podium.