The Tamesis
Outside the walls of the Via Sant’Andrea courtyard, I meet Jannik Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam champion and world number two in tennis, as the city’s anticipation is rising. The mascot-branded sprinters appear in increasing density by the hour, with visitors clad in their homeland’s flag leaping in step as they clash with Milanese.
Yet Sinner – wearing baggy black jeans, pocket chains and a one-of-a-kind Nike ACG vest that can be inflated or deflated as needed for warmth (a version of which the U.S. athlete will wear in the medal stands in Cortina, Milan) – looked effortless. “What I love about Jannik is that he’s not loud, but he’s powerful,” Nike chief design officer Martin Lotti told me as we watched Sinner pose for photos. “I feel like that extends to every aspect of him.”
Of course, Sinner isn’t competing These game – but at one point, that wasn’t a foregone conclusion. What many people may not realize is this: Sinner won the Italian Alpine Ski Giant Slalom National Junior Championship at the age of eight, and repeated the national championship at the age of 11. At 13, he started playing tennis full-time, but who knows where he would have gone if he had stayed in the game instead of turning to the racket.
In honor of his winter sports roots and his upbringing in the Dolomites, Sinner is also an ambassador and volunteer for these Games. Here he is with Fashion About what it was like to be a northern Italian kid growing up in the mountains and the people he now follows on the slopes.
Fashion: Do you have anything to do with skiing now? Are you still going out?
Jannik Sinner: Yeah, it’s an interesting relationship. When I’m home in the winter, I really enjoy going outside. But I started getting very, very careful, you know, four or five years ago… I had to make sure nothing happened. [Before that] I guess I wasn’t mature enough…I started to realize that injuries could happen very quickly. Of course I watch, watch and follow a lot of skiing.
This is cool. So are you still persisting?
Of course I do. I really like it here, there are some very, very great Italian athletes. [But for me,] I’m definitely getting less and less. Just for the simple fact that you can get hurt and you never know what might happen.
Is there anything in your skiing history that you miss or miss being able to do?
I would say adrenaline. To be honest, that’s the only thing I really miss. I would say there’s this different pressure to skiing, though. You need to perform well without really knowing where you stand. In tennis, you have a big hand because you always know the score. And you know, sometimes, maybe you can play 80% to get through. That was enough for that day. But skiing is nothing like that. You’re gone and you don’t know anything [until it’s done].
I didn’t expect this. You have nothing to compare to and nothing to calibrate against. You just have to give it your all.
Yes. So you have this pressure, and [for me] This also mostly turned into suspicion. So I thought maybe I didn’t like the competition part as much. But for what I miss, I want to say must Adrenaline. I miss the feeling of going fast.
Photo: Nick Remsen
