ALBERTO TOMBA – Ski Champion

(Bologna, 1966 – )

After the first promising performances in the team of the Arma dei Carabinieri, Alberto Tomba very soon revealed to be a great champion. He began in the national C1 competition in 1984, and entered the national B competition raising in the classification charts and then was called to compete in the A tournaments, and in February of 1986 he conquered the first classifications in World Cup in the Aare tournament in Sweden. During the 1987-1988 season Tomba’s career bloomed. He won his first competition in World Cup where he started in 23rd position; only two days after, he surpassed his idol and inspiration Ingemar Stenmark. After that came only successes, victories and medals, and the Olympic games… for over ten years. For his incredible national popularity, Barilla sponsored the Italian ski champion from March 1992 to the end of the 1996-1997 competition seasons and he appeared in three different commercials for pasta. In the first one in 1992, filmed in an elegant palace in the surroundings of Parma, Alberto welcomes guests and friends with the typical good nature of Emilia people and offers Barilla’s tagliatelle pasta. In the second one, filmed on the snowy slopes of the Adamello Mountain and of the Pass of Tonale, still in 1992, Tomba – acting as James Bond with the music underlying this aspect – proves his ability on skis by reaching his girlfriend in a mountain shack lost among woods covered in snow.
In 1995 on the unmistakable notes of Blue Boy of Blackburn-Popp, the sports champion is engaged in a humorous parody of himself and interprets his bionic alter ego. Tomba received an award the following year at the Gala of Advertising “for the effective use of a hero of sports as an actor” as best testimonial actor of the year for his appearance in this commercial. During the Notte Blu ’95 television broadcast promoted by Barilla, Alberto Tomba was awarded the Blue Cup. “Alberto, who is already full of medals and triumphs, has crowned his master-chief season. Today his name is a synonym of great value in sports throughout the world”.

Cecilia Farinelli