Roberto Franco (born May 6, 1964 in Biella , Piedmont ) is a former Italian freestyle skier . He specialized in the no longer performed discipline ballet (acro) . In this discipline he was runner-up in 1991 and won the discipline classification in the World Cup and three individual competitions.
Roberto Franco took part in the international freestyle youth championships in 1981 and 1983 and was ranked 16 and 10 in ballet. He made his debut in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup at the age of only 17 in March 1982 in Livigno . In December 1985 he was able to classify himself in the top field for the first time with ninth place in Zermatt . At the first world championships in Tignes he was also ninth. Two years later he reached his first podium finish in third in Inawashiro , in the demonstration competition at the Olympic Games in Calgary he finished eighth.
As a result, Franco was able to establish himself among the top ten in the World Cup. He finished the world championships in Oberjoch in sixth place. In the 1989/90 season he celebrated his first two World Cup victories in La Plagne and Inawashiro and was among the top four in every competition. He won the discipline ranking ahead of Rune Kristiansen and the previous dominator Hermann Reitberger . In the following winter he won another victory in Tignes , at the World Championships in Lake Placid he only had to admit defeat to Lane Spina and won the silver medal. After that he finished a few third places, but could not build on his strongest season in the World Cup. During a demonstration event of the Olympic Games of Albertville , he joined with a medley of Prokofiev and Debussy and was a fall Seventh. At his last world championships in Zauchensee , he finished fifth. He played his last World Cup in December 1994 in Tignes.
Italy
