Alfa Romeo with be participating together with the Italian Alpine skiing team in the World Cup, the World Skiing Championships and the Winter Olympics. This trio of international events will be an opportunity for Italian athletes to add to their already impressive collection of trophies and for Alfa Romeo to enter the world of competitive skiing, with the prestige of athletes admired throughout the world.

Alfa Romeo will accompany the endeavours of the Italian Alpine skiing teams with an original two-level plan of action. The brand, which is already represented on the uniforms of both the men's and women's Alpine skiing teams, has, as part of a more ambitious project, created the Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team, consisting of 8 athletes and 3 trainers. Alfa Romeo counts on these champions and experts to project its image onto ski slopes and podiums the world over.

The women athletes in the Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team are Isolde Kostner, Karen Putzer, Daniela Ceccarelli and Manuela Moelgg, the men are Kristian Ghedina, Giorgio Rocca, Massimiliano Blardone and Manfred Moelgg, while the trainers are Gustav Thoeni, Flavio Roda and Tino Pietrogiovanna. This is a team of champions with a wide spectrum of qualities and experience, of proven determination and competitiveness, and who each have a very good chance of success.

Each Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team athlete and trainer will have a personalised Alfa Romeo Crosswagon Q4 supplied by Alfa. Furthermore, Alfa offers FISI economic incentives each time a member of the ARSRT wins or earns a podium placing. This is a sponsorship mechanism that acknowledges sporting success with concrete rewards.

Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team will also be the signature theme in a number of advertising campaigns in the press and in roadside posters for the Crosswagon Q4, with the slogan 'Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team lancia la sfida olimpica con la trazione integrale' (Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team takes up the Olympic challenge with 4-wheel drive).

With this initiative, Alfa Romeo embarks on a path it will tread together with a group of outstanding athletes, supporting them in a crescendo of challenges, which will culminate with the 2006 Winter Olympics, an event that will be in the spotlight worldwide, and in which Alfa Romeo will be participating as a sponsor.

The champions of the Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team have already made a name for themselves. At Soelden, in Austria, Massimiliano Blardone took second place, achieving a result that had hitherto eluded the Italians, Alberto Tomba included, whereas Karen Putzer proved that she is still competitive, finishing tenth.

The next events in the 2004 calendar, which will give the members of the Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team a chance to prove their will to win, will be held across the Atlantic, in Canada and the USA, after which the team returns to Europe, to compete in events in France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.

Alfa Romeo embraces skiing after achieving international success with racing teams in motor sports and sailing.

In motor sports in particular, Alfa has won and continues to win in the most prestigious categories, with 5 Formula 1 Championships (1925, 1950, 1951, 1975 and 1977), the Targa Florio, 11 Mille Miglias, 4 wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours, 13 European Championships, 9 World Constructors' Championships, 4 Drivers' Championships, 8 wins at the Francorchamps 24 Hours, the European Formula 3 Championship, CIVT in 1992, DTM in 1993, BTCC in 1994, CET in 1994, European Touring Car Trophy (2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003) and ETCC Team Trophy in 2004.

In the sailing regatta circuit, Alfa Romeo is renowned as a serial winner on the seas of the world. The team's first boat set new speed records and was the first in the history of sailing to take the Grand Slam, winning the most prestigious offshore regattas in the Rolex circuit.

With good fortune and merit on their side, Alfa Romeo racing teams have, to date, achieved great sporting successes, and Alfa Romeo, a marque renowned for the technology, design, high performance and style of its cars, has worked alongside these athletes to promote its sporting and competitive spirit.