03/02/2026

LYFE TUESDAY | FEB 3, 2026

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Growing up without smartphones, TV S IBLINGS Miro and Flora Tabanelli were destined to become winter sports athletes, having been raised by parents to do, that is, being outdoors, super free,” 21-year-old Miro told the Casa Max podcast about his non-digital childhood. o Now skiing athletes, Tabanelli siblings set sights on freestyle glory at Winter Olympics with Flora also winning the Crystal Globe, while Miro became the first Italian man to win a World Cup freestyle skiing event. The pair were the first Italian athletes to win gold at the Winter X Games in Big Air, and Flora also won a Slopestyle event in Stoneham and ended the season with a World Cup Big Air title.

Before going professional with freestyle skiing, the Tabanelli siblings practised downhill skiing, mountain biking, snowboarding, figure skating and artistic gymnastics, excelling in all of them. “They’re all sports that have taught us some awareness of movement, coordination and balance. And that’s something that’s very important to develop as children,” Miro said in the podcast released in December. Flora, speaking to Eurosport Italia, said skiing and jumping “is something that gives me freedom”. Flora recovering from injury Miro made his international debut in 2020, while Flora, who is three years younger but at 18 is already the most successful Italian female freeski athlete in history, followed in 2022. In 2025, the siblings claimed the men’s and women’s titles at the Freeski Big Air World Cup in Tignes, “The word ‘Quidditch’ meant nothing to me, neither in English nor in any other language, so I went on Google. “I was like it’s a game... it’s beautiful. I think I could introduce this to my community,” Ssentamu, 47, said. Ssentamu put together a team around Good Shepherd Primary school where he teaches. Ten years of hard work paid off in 2023 when Ssentamu’s team hosted and won the first national quadball tournament. The east African country now has more than 200 players. The aim of quadball is to throw balls through hoops. But Ssentamu loves the way it combines elements of netball, football, volleyball and rugby – and also the equality between men and women, which is an official requirement for every team. But without magic, reality

Flora’s preparations for Milano Cortina, however, were marred in November by a knee ligament injury while training in Austria. However, she has managed to recover in time for the Games – with a little help from her brother. “We’re back training together. He gives me strength when I’m feeling down and gives me tons of advice. We always understand each other instantly,” she told Italian news agency Adnkronos this month. Blood ties are everything for the Tabanelli duo. “We always travel together, we train together, that’s how we grew up: Miro would do something and I would follow him. And I still happily do it,” Flora told Men’s Health Italia magazine in October.

who ran a mountain refuge in the Italian Apennines and put them on skis at the age of two. After career breakthrough victories for both last year in the World Cup and X Games, they are Italy’s best hope of challenging the US dominance of freestyle skiing in their home venue at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February. The town of Livigno, which is hosting the Games’ freestyle events and is one of their sponsors, hails them as “the most promising freeskiing pair in the world, Italian and siblings to boot”. Miro and Flora grew up in the Duca degli Abruzzi-Lake Scaffaiolo refuge in the mountains north-west of Florence, with no TV, mobile phones or social media, exploring nature and practising sports with parents Antonio and Lucia, and older sister Irene. “I don’t regret it even for a moment. We always had better things FAR from the legendary skies above Hogwarts school, a young woman chased a “Golden Snitch” highlighting how the craze for Harry Potter’s favourite sport Quidditch has taken hold in a remote Ugandan village. In a clearing surrounded by banana trees, around 135km from the capital Kampala, players ran around with sticks between their legs instead of broomsticks. The adapted version of Quidditch is officially called quadball, and does not require the same magical or flying abilities as the sport invented by J.K. Rowling for her books. But it has gained a following around the world and it came to Katwadde, deep in rural southern Uganda, in 2013 thanks to primary school teacher John Ssentamu, who discovered the sport after reading a Harry Potter book over the shoulder of someone on a bus.

“Flora is a beautiful person. Just one smile from her can make my day. Without her, this adventure wouldn’t have been the same,” Miro said in the joint interview. – Reuters Harry Potter game Quidditch finds fans deep in rural Uganda

Miro in action during a men’s freeski slopestyle event. – REUTERSPIC

or the Americas. Thirty-one teams took part in the last World Cup, a three-day event in Belgium last year. “My dream is to see a team from here going to the World Cup of Quidditch, because it would be a revelation for the whole world,” he said. Still, the sport has boosted the community in Katwadde, attracting children to the school in an area where education is not always a priority. Vicky Edith Nabbanja, Ssentamu’s daughter, is one of the “beaters”, who can temporarily knock opposing players out of the game with dodgeballs. “It has brought youth together and it has opened up their minds” while also helping to create “a community of belonging”, the 25-year-old said. – AFP

A chaser jumps in the air to score during a training session in the village of Katwadde in Uganda. – PICS FROM AFP

can intrude. The team lacks the funds to travel, said Ssentamu and despite

invitations, they have been unable to attend the quadball World Cup, held every two years since 2012 in Europe

Nabbanja, 25, who plays as a beater, adjusts the PVC goal hoops used to score points during a game.

Chasers and beaters with sticks between their legs fight for the ball during a game of Quidditch, also known as quadball.

Diana Nabitaka, 20, (second from left) who plays as a keeper, reacts with some other players during a training session.