Seven-time Olympic cross-country skiing medallist, Manuela Di Centa went on to plant the Olympic flag on the roof of the world in 2003.
Top of the world
Growing up in the Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of Northern Italy, near the Austrian border, Manuela Di Centa had two dreams. The first was to compete at the Olympic Games – she went on to do so no less than five times – and the second was to complete an ascent of the world’s highest mountain. On 23 May 2003, half a century after Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay, she became the first Italian woman to reach the 8,848m summit of Everest. The IOC member duly planted the Olympic flag at the top of the world’s highest peak. After returning to sea level, she donated the equipment from her expedition to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
A precocious talent
At the age of four, Di Centa took her first ….
Read the full biography on the IOC site