ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
I grew up in Trieste, in the north-east of Italy, between the Alps and the sea. I started windsurfing because my whole family is addicted to it - every summer I'd travel with them to Greece to windsurf and I tried it a few times with the equipment of my parents. In the winter I used to ski a lot, as I lived near the Alps. I started when I was three and it was actually my first sport.
It was only at sixteen that I windsurfed for the whole summer and I fell in love with it, it started giving a new meaning to my life. In the water I feel good and find my happy refuge. After that summer I decided to move to Gran Canaria for one year to train more in windsurf.
Since then my life has changed and has always moved around windsurfing. After a few summers in Pozo Izquierdo, I decided to try my skills in competitions, and 2014 was my debut on the World Tour. I scored a 5th place in Pozo Izquierdo and 11th in the final ranking.
I got my first sponsors after the PWA and this motivated me a lot.
Encouraged by my sponsors I started SUP in the meanwhile as well, with the SUP race I can be in the water all the time, and can enjoy every condition.
In 2018 I became Vice World Champion in China at the 200m Sprints, in 2019 I got third at the World Championships in El Salvador and I am 4 time in a row Italian Champion.
Before Covid I have been balancing my life between the windsurf and sup tours and I spent the winter months in Cape Town and the summer in Canary Islands.
My plans and career took a big change with the global pandemic.
In just few weeks I found myself forced to give a new setup to my life, and found my self unable to travel and train. What seemed to be like a static time, became for me an unique occasion to discover again my home land, a land that I almost forgot after many years of travelling.
“This change completely changed my world. Since ten years I was not living anymore in Trieste, my home town, and lived this change in a positive way. I rediscovered my home land, and had the time to live more quite, and not travelling by plane all year long.
I found the sea five minutes from home, but above all I rediscovered my home mountains, the Julian Alps. In my training plans I started including running and I’ve started running in the mountains.
From there I quickly found myself on the start line of my first trail race. I found something new, a new feeling that made me feel happy and gave me a lot of motivation.
After few years of combining professional Sup and running, I am now a full time runner, and left the competitive sup scene to dedicate myself 100% to trail running.
I like competitions as I see them as a way to push your limits and improve, but I like much more things that competitions brings to me. The adventure, the sacrifice, the new friendships, the travels.
It is definitely not easy to balance and combine everything, and to always be far away from my family, but as long this will give me satisfaction, I will keep doing it with thrill and dedication.
So I encourage you too to keep fighting, with strength, to fulfill your dreams!
At the moment I live in Italy in the Julian Alps where I found my perfect playground and training place and in summer I keep travelling from one place to another to compete in the trail running international circuits. I have some ambitions as well in the road running and will compete there as well.
You can write me at stentacaterina(at)gmail.com or follow me:
