Cristian Zorzi

Cristian Zorzi

nation

Italy

birthday

14th August 1972 (age 48)

place of birth

Cavalese , Italy

size

184 cm

Weight

75 kg

Career

society

GS Fiamme Gialle

status

active

Medal table

Olympic medals	1 ×	1 ×	1 ×
World Cup medals	1 ×	1 ×	0 ×
National championships	3 ×	7 ×	4 ×

winter Olympics
silver	2002 Salt Lake City	Season
bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	sprint
gold	2006 Turin	Season
Nordic World Ski Championships
silver	2001 Lahti	sprint
gold	2007 Sapporo	Team sprint

Placements in the cross-country skiing world cup

Debut in the World Cup	December 21, 1993
World Cup victories in individual	5 ( details )
World Cup victories in the team	6 ( details )
Overall World Cup	7th ( 2001/02 )
Sprint World Cup	2. ( 2000/01 )

Podium placements	1.	2.	3.
Sprint races	5	2	4th
Season	2	6th	0
Team sprint	4th	1	1

Placements in the Continental Cup (COC)

Debut in the Continental Cup	5th December 1992
Continental Cup victories	4 ( details )

Podium placements	1.	2.	3.
COC individual race	3	2	1
OPA individual race	1	1	0

Placements in the marathon or Worldloppet Cup

Debut in the Cup	March 9, 2008
Overall rating	8. ( 2012/13 )

Podium placements	1.	2.	3.
Single race	0	1	2

last change: December 29, 2015

Cristian Zorzi (born August 14, 1972 in Cavalese ) is an Italian cross-country skier . During his time in the World Cup he specialized in sprint and team competitions and, in addition to the Olympic title with the 2006 relay, also won team sprint gold at the 2007 World Championships . After leaving the World Cup, Zorzi competes in long-distance races in the Cross-Country Skiing Marathon Cup .

Career

Early years

Zorzi made his international debut in the early 1990s at FIS races and in the cross-country skiing Continental Cup . In January 1993 the Italian reached the top 10 for the first time in Argentière . At the beginning of the 1993/94 season , he started the cross-country skiing world cup for the first time on December 21, 1993 in Toblach . As 118th and 94th the following day, however, he got stuck in the back seats. As a result, he remained a member of the B-squad until the following year and started in the Continental Cup.

In December 1994 he started again in the World Cup in Sappada and was 33rd on the second day of the 10 km race in the free style for the first time near the World Cup points. Nevertheless, Zorzi stayed in the B-squad. On January 14, 1995, he celebrated his first Continental Cup victory in Argentière. For the 1995/96 season Zorzi came back to the World Cup. However, neither in Vuokatti nor in the other World Cups until December did he not get into the points. For the first time he landed as 25th in Štrbské Pleso in January 1996 in the points.

Increase in performance in the World Cup

In March 1997, Zorzi managed to finish eighth over 50 km in Oslo for the first time in the top ten. However, he could not keep his performance constant at the beginning of the following season 1997/98 . In the Continental Cup he won in Gsteig and Breitenwang , so that he was used again in the World Cup in March and was able to collect World Cup points again in Falun as 14th . In the overall World Cup he reached 51st place with 26 points.

For the 1998/99 season Zorzi got a permanent place in the A-team. By February he had already secured four World Cup points and was among the top 20 in Milan and Seefeld .

In December 1999 Zorzi managed to finish eighth in Sappada in the 15 km race in the top 10. In Kitzbühel he was also able to convince in ninth place in the sprint. In February 2000, Zorzi just missed his first two podium places in Ulrichen and Falun as fourth. Surprisingly, he was able to win the sprint race in Lahti a little later in early March . In the overall World Cup ranking of the 1999/2000 season , he also achieved a top 10 place for the first time with tenth place.

Constant performance and the best season

In the 2000/01 season Zorzi started poorly, but was able to prove his performance again in mid-December as third in Brusson . In Engelberg he won the qualification in the sprint, but ended up in the race in second place behind Tor Arne Hetland . With his second World Cup victory in the Soldier Hollow sprint , he finally safely qualified for the 2001 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti . There he won the silver medal in the 1.5 km sprint. After gaining further points in the following World Cups, he reached 11th place overall.

His most successful World Cup season was in 2001/02 . After he failed to score points in the individual World Cups at the beginning of the season in Kuopio and finished fifth in the same place with the Italian relay, he secured his third World Cup victory in the sprint of Cogne on December 9, 2001. He was also the first to cross the finish line in the sprint in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the end of December . At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in February , Zorzi won the bronze medal in the sprint race behind the Norwegian Tor-Arne Hetland and the German Peter Schlickenrieder . In the individual over 30 km he had to admit defeat to the strong competition and came in ninth. Together with Fabio Maj , Giorgio Di Centa and Pietro Piller Cottrer , he won silver again in the 4 × 5 km relay race.

At the relay world cup in Lahti a short time after the games, he secured his first victory in the team sprint. Zorzi finished the season in seventh place in the overall World Cup ranking and thus concluded his most successful season. As a result, he could not finish the seasons as one of the top ten in the overall standings.

Performance slump in the World Cup

After his successes from 2000 to 2002, things got quieter around Zorzi from the 2002/03 season . So he started the new season with mediocre results and was only successful in relay races with the team. It wasn't until mid-December that he made it into the top ten again in the sprint in Clusone . In Linz he was third again on the podium before he celebrated his last individual World Cup victory in Reit im Winkl in January . Before that, he had already clinched a clear victory in the team sprint in Oberhof .

On February 14, 2003, he celebrated his last victory in a team sprint in Asiago for a few years . In the overall ranking he reached a 12th place. It was his last top 20 position in the overall standings. He was only able to reach the top 20 three times in the sprint discipline classification.

At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf in 2005 , Zorzi reached 17th place in the individual over 15 km in free style, before missing a medal in both the relay and team sprint as fourth.

Olympic relay victory and team sprint world champion

One of his greatest successes achieved Zorzi despite a weak World Cup from 2003 to 2006 at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin by winning the relay gold medal. Before that, he and the team had already secured the relay World Cup in Lago di Tesero . Zorzi celebrated his last World Cup victory a little later on March 18, 2006 in the Japanese Sapporo in the team sprint.

At the same place he won the gold medal in this discipline with his partner Renato Pasini at the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2007. It was his last great success.

Christian Zorzi and Harald Wurm at the Tour de Ski 2007/08

The 2007/08 Tour de Ski ended Zorzi on a poor 31st place. Two years later, despite mixed appearances in the World Cup, at the age of 37, he was able to qualify again for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , but did not start there in the individual disciplines. Even in the team sprint, he and his partner Pasini did not get past eighth place. Even with the season he remained below his possibilities. The team finished ninth.

A national team exit and Marathon Cup

After the Games, he ended his World Cup career and retired to the lower-class Alpine Cup for the 2010/11 season and also started long-distance races in the Cross-Country Skiing Marathon Cup . Despite his advanced age, he reached the podium in Samedan in March 2012 after a run of 42 km. A year later in the 2012/13 season he secured a good result with second place in the same place. In the overall Marathon Cup ranking, he reached eighth place. In the 2013/14 season he only played five of the competitions and ended up in 30th place overall.

successes

Victories in world cup races

World Cup victories in individual

No.	date	place	discipline
1.	March 3, 2000	Finland Lahti	Sprint freestyle
2.	January 14, 2001	United States Soldier Hollow	Sprint freestyle
3.	December 9, 2001	Italy Cogne	Sprint freestyle
4th	December 27, 2001	Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Sprint freestyle
5.	February 12, 2003	Germany Reit im Winkl	Classic sprint

World Cup victories in the team

No.	date	place	discipline
1.	March 3, 2002	Finland Lahti	Team sprint
2.	November 24, 2002	Sweden Kiruna	Season
3.	January 26, 2003	Germany Oberhof	Team sprint
4th	February 14, 2003	Italy Asiago	Team sprint
5.	January 15, 2006	Italy Lake Tesero	Season
6th	March 18, 2006	Japan Sapporo	Team sprint

Victories in Continental Cup races

No.	date	place	discipline	series
1.	January 14, 1995	France Argentiere	15 km freestyle	Continental Cup
2.	February 7, 1998	Switzerland Gsteig-Feutersoey	15 km freestyle	Continental Cup
3.	February 14, 1998	Austria Breitenwang	15 km freestyle	Continental Cup
4th	January 14, 2007	Italy Cogne	15 km freestyle	Alpine Cup

Placements in the World Cup

World Cup Statistics

The table shows the placements achieved in detail.

1st – 3rd place: Number of podium placements
Top 10: Number of places in the top ten
Points ranks: Number of placements within the point ranks
Starts: Number of races run in the respective discipline
Note: In the distance races, the classification is based on the FIS.

placement	Distance races ^a					Skiathlon pursuit	sprint	Stage race ^b	total	Team ^c
placement	≤ 5 km	≤ 10 km	≤ 15 km	≤ 30 km	> 30 km	Skiathlon pursuit	sprint	Stage race ^b	total	sprint	Season
1st place							5		5	4th	2
2nd place							2		2	1	6th
3rd place							4th		4th	1
Top 10		3	8th	1	1		21st		34	12	17th
Scoring		11	18th	6th	2	3	48		88	13	20th
Starts	1	21st	43	13	5	8th	63	4th	158	13	20th
Status: World Cup exit 2010

^a including individual starts and mass starts according to FIS classification

^bEntire race, not individual stages, e.g. B. Tour de Ski, Nordic Opening, season finale

^c Possibly incomplete due to a lack of suitable sources before 2001

World Cup overall placements

season	total		distance		sprint
season	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space
1995/96	6th	75.	-	-	-	-
1996/97	32	52.	32	28 ¹	-	-
1997/98	26th	51.	-	-	26th	40.
1998/99	31	52.	-	-	31	58.
1999/2000	359	10.	199	8. ²	160	5.
2000/01	331	11.	-	-	288	2.
2001/02	327	7th	-	-	264	3.
2002/03	315	12.	-	-	276	5.
2003/04	74	57.	2	108.	72	25th
2004/05	255	21st	117	23.	138	14th
2005/06	221	23.	48	59.	173	12.
2006/07	24	101.	10	85.	14th	61.
2007/08	51	76.	-	-	51	46.
2008/09	181	41.	30th	63.	151	18th
2009/10	73	77.	1	125.	72	37.