Sometimes sport is decided in a heartbeat. For Martina Favaretto, 31 years old, athlete of the national women’s bobsled team and physical education teacher in the province of Venice, that breath was just two hundredths of a second. A microscopic, almost invisible distance that kept her out of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Not two seconds, not two tenths: a fraction of time that on the ice is equivalent to a few centimeters. Yet enough to extinguish the Olympic dream. Favaretto had prepared that selection as one prepares for a decisive exam: training at dawn, travel, constant balance between the gym and the electronic register. The track delivered its verdict in implacable fashion. Stopwatch in hand, the ticket to the Games has disappeared by a margin that can be measured in the blinks of an eye.
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The return to class and the surprise
But as we know, the best is yet to come. And the best, for her, didn’t happen on an icy rink but at school. The day after the selection, Martina returned to the gym ready to resume lessons. Waiting for her were not only students curious to know how it went. There was a colorful poster, full of signatures, with a phrase worth more than any medal:
For us she will always be the fastest teacher in the world. We don’t give a damn about the two cents.
A simple but very powerful gesture. Applause, hugs, shining eyes. “I cried with them“he said, explaining that they were tears of gratitude. In that classroom, the sporting disappointment was transformed into something different: a confirmation of the bond built over the years, between lessons, school tournaments and stories of international competitions.
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Sport and teaching, the same race
Martina Favaretto’s story brings together two worlds that rarely overlap so intensely: high-level competition and school. Professor by day, athlete by night; between an educational program and a start on the ice.
He explained to his students that the value of sport does not end with the podium or the medal. What sacrifice, passion and discipline remain even when the result doesn’t arrive. And that losing by two cents does not mean having failed, but having fought until the last millimetre.
And if unfortunately success is often measured only with medals, his story tells something else: the strength to get back on his feet, to go back to work the next day, to transform a lack of qualification into a life lesson. Martina will not be at the Milan-Cortina Games. But for dozens of kids who listen to her and follow her every week, she has already won.
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