On Wednesday, the 35-year-old reigning World Cup overall champion posted a short video from the Stubai Glacier in Austria with the caption “After 237 days, @federicabrignone is back on the snow 🤩🇮🇹.” The clip showed her carving smooth, confident turns in perfect late-November conditions, marking her long-awaited return following the serious leg injury that ended her 2024–25 season last March.
Brignone had dominated the previous winter, clinching the big crystal globe along with the giant slalom and downhill discipline titles, before a crash in the Saalbach World Cup finals forced her into surgery and months of intensive rehabilitation.
“Finally!!!” wrote Brignone on Instagram. “237 days without skis… today the countdown really starts again.”
The comeback is perfectly timed: the first women’s speed races of the 2025–26 season (downhill and super-G) are scheduled for December 5–7 in Beaver Creek, USA, followed by giant slalom and slalom at Copper Mountain the following weekend. While Brignone has not yet confirmed her exact racing return date, sources close to the Italian team indicate she is targeting the Beaver Creek downhill weekend for her first competitive starts in nine months.
Teammate and close friend Sofia Goggia commented instantly: “La Regina è tornata!” (The Queen is back!), while Mikaela Shiffrin added a series of fire and Italian-flag emojis.
Brignone’s return adds another heavyweight to an already stacked speed field that will miss Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami (knee injury sustained at Copper last week) for at least the early part of the season. With Olympic medals and another overall title on the line in the build-up to Milano-Cortina 2026, the Italian ace wasted no time reminding the ski world that she is ready to fight for every point once again.
Welcome back, Fede. The mountains have missed you. 🇮🇹❄️
