At the age of 15, the daughter of Olympic champion Daniela Ceccarelli is ready to make her first appearance in alpine skiing’s elite competition this weekend in Sölden, Austria: “I don’t have expectations, I just hope to have fun,” said the first female skier representing Albania in a World Cup event.

Mikaela Shiffrin, Lara Gut-Behrami, and Janica Kostelic are all alpine skiing Olympic champions and winners of the big crystal globe.

The trio have something else in common: they all made their World Cup debut in their mid-teenage years.

On Saturday (22 October) Lara Colturi is set to go one better than them, at least in terms of age, making her first appearance in the sport’s premiere competition at the age of 15 years, 11 months and 9 days.

“I’ve been following the World Cup for some time because skiing is quite a big thing in my family,” the 15-year-old told Olympics.com ahead of the 2022/23 season opener in Sölden, Austria.

Colturi is the daughter of Salt Lake City 2002 Super G gold medallist of Italy Daniela Ceccarelli, who is also her coach. Her father Alessandro is a ski instructor.

“My debut comes very soon, it’s true, but I’ve trained a lot for this and I just hope to have fun.”

In 1998, a 16-year-old Kostelic, racing for only the fourth time in the alpine elite series, finished 12th in her Giant Slalom debut on the Rettenbach glacier slopes.

“The race in Sölden is special for me,” admits Colturi, who had impressive career in the U14 and U16 categories, winning several Italian titles along the way.

“I’ve been there many times and I did some practice runs with other skiers. I think I’ll be excited for sure, but I don’t have any particular expectations in terms of results, we have to be realistic.”