Panizza on quest to slide for Italy at home Winter Olympic Games

In just under a year’s time, the best winter sports athletes will gather in Italy for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Hoping to join them is Italian rower Andrea Panizza, who is attempting to add to his two Olympic appearances in the men’s quadruple sculls with a new sport: bobsleigh.

If he is successful, Panizza would become only the sixth rower to also compete at a Winter Olympics and the first in more than 50 years – following in the footsteps of compatriot Giuseppe Crivelli, who after winning bronze in the men’s eight at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games raced in the five-man bobsleigh at the second Winter Olympics, St Moritz 1928.

Panizza says he first thought about taking up bobsleigh after disappointment at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where his quad finished fifth in the A-final.

“I wanted to change sport, try a new challenge,” he explains. “When I went back home some of my friends went to Turin for selection for bob and skeleton. I asked them just for fun to join them.

“I have fun with them. The Italian team are very gentle and I liked that moment and I enjoyed training with them. But I felt like I had more to give for rowing and I wanted to focus on the Paris Olympics.”

Panizza’s focus on rowing paid off with a superb silver medal in the men’s quadruple sculls in Paris last summer. Afterwards, he turned his mind again to bobsleigh, starting to train with the Italian team and racing twice already.

In bobsleigh – both in the two-man and four-man event – the pilot is the leader, steering the sled down an icy track at speeds of up to 150 km/h. But the team also consists of powerful athletes whose principal job is to get the sled up to speed off the start. Normally, those switching to the discipline from other sports are track sprinters, who have the explosive intensity needed.

“The hardest part of bobsleigh is that it is a sport very different from rowing. Rowing is an endurance sport and bobsleigh is strength, power and speed,” says Panizza.

His training started with running, largely sprints, and he admits the physical aspects of rowing have not been especially helpful save for his natural weight and strength.

“Rowing training helped me mentally and not physically,” he adds. “Bobsleigh is more difficult mentally because you have to push everything in five seconds, so it’s not easy to catch energy.”

When racing in the two-man bob, Panizza also acts as the brakeman, who has to remember to stop the sled at the end of the course. He says his first time down a track was “strange”.

“You run five seconds, you jump in the bob and you don’t know what will happen,” he recalls. “Then after the first time you enjoy the ride because when the pilot is good you don’t hit the wall too much.”

Panizza is now juggling the two sports, continuing to train for bobsleigh while also going to his first rowing camp of the year. That means fitting in running sessions around long paddles on the water.

“It’s a difficult moment because I have to choose but I want to do both together,” he says, admitting the extra session will be a challenge.

Panizza says his rowing teammates, particularly at his club Fiamme Gialle, have been supportive about his decision to try out bobsleigh.

“They enjoy my choice and they’re curious about the switch of sport. They help me, they want to see me go fast in the bob, but they know that when I go back to rowing it’s good too,” he says.

Ahead of the rowing season starting, Panizza is hoping to bag a spot in one of the Italian sleds for the upcoming Europa Cup in St Moritz at the end of February, and his longer term goal remains Milano Cortina next year. Further selection takes place in May, by which point he will have a clearer idea of whether he has a chance to join the elite group of both summer and Winter Olympians.