Alpine skiing-Poland's Gasienica-Daniel follows family footsteps in Cortina

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 4 : Polish Alpine skier Maryna Gasienica-Daniel will be hearing echoes from the past in Cortina d'Ampezzo as the fourth member of her family to compete at a Winter Olympics in the Italian resort, albeit after a 70-year interval.

The 31-year-old veteran of three Olympics will be following in the footsteps of great-aunts Maria and Helena and great-uncle Andrzej who all competed in the 1956 Games.

Maria was an Alpine skier, Helena favoured cross-country and Andrzej was a ski jumper.

"I feel like it's coming full circle," said Maryna. "I feel like my (great) uncle and aunts will be cheering for me.

"Always when I come to Cortina I imagine them being here."

Gasienica-Daniel was sixth in the giant slalom at last year's world championships and has had two career-best fifth places in the World Cup in giant this season.    

The Pole, eighth in giant slalom at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, will be in action in the discipline on February 15.

Two other family members have also competed at the Olympics - great-uncle Jozef in Nordic Combined in Grenoble in 1968 and sister Agnieszka in Alpine in Vancouver in 2010. 

"We come from Zakopane. It's a winter place and there's not much else to do besides sport," said Gasienica-Daniel. "It was our destiny to be a sports family."