Mara Zini

Mara Zini
Mara Zini (front, 2007)
nation	Italy
birthday	October 26, 1979
place of birth	Sondalo
size	169 cm
Weight	53 kg
Career
society	Frecce Rossonere Aosta Centro Sportivo Esercito
Trainer	Mirko Vuillermin, Stelio Conti
National squad	since 1995
status	resigned
End of career	2009
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 0 × 1 × World Cup medals 0 × 0 × 3 × EM medals 6 × 3 × 0 ×
winter Olympics bronze Turin 2006 Season  Short track world championships bronze Sofia 2003 team bronze St. Petersburg 2004 team bronze Minneapolis 2006 Season  European Short Track Championships gold Malmo 1997 Season gold Budapest 1998 Season gold Bormio 2000 Season silver The Hague 2001 All-around silver Grenoble 2002 All-around gold Grenoble 2002 Season gold St. Petersburg 2003 Season silver Zoetermeer 2004 Season gold Krynica-Zdrój 2006 Season
Placements in the Short Track World Cup
Debut in the World Cup October 30, 1999  Overall World Cup 9. ( 01/02 ); 11. ( 04/05 )  500 m world cup 7th ( 04/05 ); 9. ( 06/07 )  1000 m world cup 12. ( 01/02 )  1500 m world cup 9. ( 01/02 ); 8. ( 03/04 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Relay / team 0 2 4th
last change: February 14, 2012

Mara Zini (born October 26, 1979 in Sondalo ) is a former Italian short tracker .

Zini first started for the Frecce Rossonere Aosta club , later for the Centro Sportivo Esercito club and trained at the ice sports center in Courmayeur . She has been part of the Italian national team since 1995 and played her first international title fights at the Junior World Championship in 1996. There she reached the semi-finals over 1500 m and just barely missed a medal as fourth in the 500 m final. A year later she started again at the Junior World Championships and reached the semi-finals over 1000 m and 1500 m respectively. At the European Championship in 1997 in Malmö and in 1998 in Budapest Zini was part of the Italian season and won each gold, it was their first international medals. In October 1999, Zini made his World Cup debut in Salt Lake City . In her first season three semi-finals over 1000 m and 1500 m were her best results. At the European Home Championships in Bormio in 2000 , Zini also had a breakthrough in individual races. She reached the final in three individual races and was sixth in the all-around competition. With the relay she won the gold medal again. In Sheffield Zini started for the first time at the World Championship , but could not survive the prelims in her individual races. In the 2000/01 season she reached several semi-finals in World Cup races. She was ninth in the overall World Cup ranking. At the European Championships in The Hague , Zini won silver in the all-around competition. She finished second over 500 m and 1500 m and third over 1000 m. In the following season, Zini repeated winning the silver medal in the all-around at the 2002 European Championships in Grenoble . She reached the finals in all individual races. She came second over 500 m and 3000 m, third over 1500 m and fifth over 1000 m. With the relay she won another gold medal. Zini qualified for the Salt Lake City Olympics . She reached the semi-finals over 500 m and 1500 m and the quarter-finals over 1000 m. She finished fifth with the season.

In the 2002/03 season , Zini moved over 500 m for the first time in a final in a World Cup individual race. With the relay, she was also third and placed on the World Cup podium for the first time. At the season highlights, Zini was particularly successful in the relay and team competitions. With the relay, she first won gold at the European Championships in Saint Petersburg , at the World Championships in Warsaw , the quartet narrowly missed a medal as fourth. She was able to win another medal in Sofia at the team world championship, where she finished third. Also in the 2003/04 season , Zini was particularly successful with the team. In the World Cup she took a total of three podium places with the relay. She was eighth in the discipline world cup over 1500 m. At the European Championships in Zoetermeer , she won silver with the relay, but was not used in the final. At the team world championship in Saint Petersburg she was again third with the team. In the 2004/05 season , Zini was able to draw attention again in individual races. She reached two finals in the World Cup. In the overall World Cup she was eleventh, over 500 m in the discipline World Cup seventh. At the European Championships in Turin and the World Championships in Beijing , Zini was able to reach the semi-finals as the best result over 500 m and 1500 m respectively. In the 2005/06 season , Zini won third place twice with the relay. At the European Championships in Krynica-Zdrój she was able to win the gold medal again with the relay. At the Olympic Games in Turin and the World Championships in Minneapolis , Zini surprisingly won the bronze medal with the relay.

In her last season, 2006/07 , Zini reached a final in a World Cup race over 500 m. She fought her last international title fights at the Team World Championship in Budapest, where she and her teammates missed the finals. Until 2009, Zini started in smaller competitions, but was no longer part of the Italian national team.

Her cousin Katia was also a successful short tracker and her direct competitor for many years.

Web links

• Mara Zini in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Mara Zini in the database of ShorttrackOnLine.info (English)