Elena Fanchini (30 April 1985 – 8 February 2023) was an Italian alpine ski racer. She was born in Val Camonica, and focused on the speed events of downhill and super-G. Her younger sisters Nadia and Sabrina also raced on the Italian team.
Biography
Fanchini won two World Cup races in downhill 9 years apart and won a silver medal at the 2005 world championships. She represented Italy at three Winter Olympics and four World Championships.
Illness and death
On 12 January 2018 Fanchini announced that she would have to give up participating in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics in order to undergo cancer treatment. In the 2019 season she was preparing to return to the World Cup, but during training for the Killington Super-G she fell on the Superstar track and suffered a fracture of a finger of the hand and a distortion-bruising trauma to the left knee, with fracture of the proximal fibula. The injury forced her to return to Italy without being able to compete in the season.
On 22 April 2020 both Elena Fanchini and her sister, Nadia, announced their retirement from alpine skiing.
Elena Fanchini died from cancer on 8 February 2023 at Pian Camuno. She was 37.