Alberto Tomba, ’80s and ’90s Skiing Icon, Returns to the Spotlight

A few days before he ignited the Olympic cauldron to start the 2026 Winter Games, Alberto Tomba greeted his pet rooster near his home in the hills outside Bologna and opened a door beside a sign reading “My Happy Place.” The 59-year-old led the visitor into a stone farmhouse he had turned into a wine cellar, saying, “Here, I have 2,500 bottles,” and picking out a giant 1996 bottle that bore a caricature of him racing in a fluorescent ski suit.

Known as “Tomba la Bomba” for his blazing speed and outsized personality, he was a national sensation in the 1980s and ’90s. Broadcasters once broke away from Italy’s national song competition to show him ski; he famously shouted, “I am the new messiah of skiing!” and ate a piece of Christmas cake between runs.

He traveled with munitions of Parmesan, signed women’s ski pants, dated Miss Italy and drove a red Ferrari, becoming a flamboyant expression of Italy’s late ’80s id.

Italy, Bologna

alberto tomba, skiing, winter games, olympic cauldron, bologna, wine cellar, 1980s, 1990s, miss italy, ferrari