If you hadn't become a skier...
I'd be a figure skater! My dream has always been to do both sports at professional level. But they are very different; the feeling of skating on a two-millimetre thin blade is completely different from standing on skis. Your physique also has to be different: for skiing you need muscles and a certain weight, while for figure skating it helps to be slim. On the other hand, both sports require a similar sense of rhythm.

Do you listen to music while skiing?
Always. I've listened to 60,000 minutes of music on Spotify. (laughs) Music helps me get flowing, I can focus better with it. It's like I'm flying, just the snow and me and nothing else. But I also let music play in the background, even when I'm inspecting a run or in the hospitality tent.

Spotify or Netflix?
Both! I could lie on my bed for days and watch Netflix series. But it depends how I feel, there are moments when I prefer to read. Then I get tired of that and I watch a film or play the piano or start drawing, even though I can't draw. (laughs)

Isn't that all a bit much?
Life is short - and I want to do a billion things.

What does freedom mean to you?
To do what I want. And have fun doing it.

Where do you see yourself in twenty years?
For skiers too, life goes on after retirement, and I'm sure a lot of doors will open then. I would like to live somewhere else and travel more then ever. But I will certainly stay connected to skiing in some way or another. After all, I was born on the first snowfall in November, so snow is my element!

Lara Colturi is a "predestinata" as they say in Italian. Her mother Daniela Ceccarelli was a champion racing skier and won Olympic gold in the 2002 Super-G. Lara follows her every step of the way and at the age of 16 is already competing with big names in the Ski World Cup. She trains regularly in St. Moritz, where she has the High Altitude Training Base infrastructure at her disposal.

In Shiffrin's footsteps: Lara Colturi stuns the ski world