Manuela Di Centa
Manuela Di Centa ( born January 31, 1963 in Paluzza ) is a former Italian cross-country skier.
Career
Di Centa first took part in 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, but not to have a medal chance. Within the Games in Albertville in 1992 she won the bronze medal with the Italian 4 x 5 km freestyle relay.
Their most successful Winter Games was the Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994 as it was Olympic champion over 15km freestyle and 30 km classic. In addition, she won the silver medal in the 30 km pursuit race and over 5 km classic. With the season they repeated the success in 1992 and won bronze. In 1994 she was voted European Athlete of the Year. In 1996, she received the Holmenkollen medal as the first Italian woman.
In 1998, she launched one last time at the Olympics. In Nagano, she won as an 35 -year-old again bronze team.
In 2003, she climbed Mount Everest and was the first Italian who reached the summit.
In press reports, Di Centa has recently been associated with the long-term ingestion of the hormone erythropoietin, which they should have taken since the end of the eighties only at the behest of her former Finnish coach Jarmo Punkkinen and later in cooperation with the Italian sports scientist Francesco Conconi. So it should be almost always gone with their great success in the first half of the nineties with an artificially increased by EPO to over 50% hematocrit at the start ( in women are values between 37% and 45% of normal).
Sports official
Since 1996, Di Centa is a member of the Italian athletes association to which they board 1996 and from 1998 to 2002 as President. Since 2000 she is a member of the National Olympic Committee of Italy. From 2005 to 2006 she was Vice President of the NOC and is also a member of the IOC for Italy.
Policy
Manuela Di Centa is in the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2006 deputy for Forza Italia.
Family
Her brother Giorgio Di Centa is also a successful cross-country runner and won at the Olympic Winter Games 2006 in Turin two gold medals.