I have a silver medal that I won in downhill at the 1962 World Championship in Chamonix and I have 10 gold medals from Italian championships, but it’s this vase that is most important to me.
It was a prize for winning a little race, for tourists, really, in the town of Selva di Val Gardena in Italy. There were maybe 12 of us—I was just 19—and I think they were hoping to give the prize to the actress Romy Schneider, who happened to be there. She was very pretty and a lovely person. But I won. The vase says it was February 26, 1954.
My father wanted me to stay in university, but sitting in the classroom didn’t inspire me. That vase represents the start of a life that wasn’t expected of me—becoming a member of the Italian ski team, moving to the United States. And that’s why I like it. It was a little devil talking to me in my ear.
~ Pia Riva McIsaac, retired professional skier, Covelo, CA