Italy clinches 2nd Olympic gold with win in short track speed skating mixed relay

Cortina d’Ampezzo – Arianna Fontana, Italy’s most decorated Winter Olympian, led her team to gold in the mixed short track relay at the Milano-Cortina Games on Feb 10.

It was the second gold for the hosts, after Francesca Lollobrigida in the 3,000m speed skating on Feb 7.

The four Italian skaters – Fontana, Elisa Confortola, Thomas Nadalini and Pietro Sighel – clocked 2min 39.019sec over 2,000m in the final to beat Canada and Belgium, second and third respectively, at Milan’s ice skating arena.

Italy, silver medallists in 2022 with a team featuring Fontana, seized control around halfway and stayed in front to the finish.

“I was launching myself to overtake and change the pace, and at that moment the Chinese skater slightly lost her rhythm, which made things a bit easier. We took the opportunity to pick up speed and then we managed it from there,” Fontana told reporters.

“Being on the Olympic podium is always emotional. And with the home crowd, seeing my family, our families there getting emotional, maybe even more than we were, it was magical.”

With 12 Olympic medals in six Games, the 35-year-old needs only one more to match fencing champion Edoardo Mangiarotti’s record for the most Olympic medals by any Italian.

Earlier, Fontana qualified for the women’s 500m quarter-finals on Feb 12. Her teammate Sighel celebrated the gold by turning towards his oncoming rivals and skating backwards just after crossing the finish line.

“I did it for the home crowd; it wasn’t a disrespectful gesture towards my opponents,” he said.

Canada’s William Dandjinou, who flaps his arms like an eagle for his victory routines, said he loved Sighel’s celebration.

“That’s what we need in our sport. I’m super happy for the Italian team. Winning at home must be so special for them, it’s really deserved,” the silver medallist said.

Freestyle skier Birk Ruud of Norway claimed the gold in the men’s slopestyle, after an impeccable first run on a course that befuddled many of his competitors.

American Alex Hall, the gold medallist at Beijing 2022, won silver on the slopes in Livigno.

New Zealand’s Luca Harrington, one of the younger competitors at age 21, claimed bronze.

“It was kind of the last piece to the collection, with big air and slopestyle,” Ruud, 25, said of his new medal. “It’s a beautiful feeling and a special moment. I’ll try to take it in.”

In the biathlon, Norway’s Johan-Olav Botn stormed through the final lap to win an emotionally charged gold in a nerve-jangling men’s 20km individual race at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena.

France’s Eric Perrot took the silver, 14.8 seconds behind, with Botn’s compatriot Sturla Holm Laegreid claiming bronze.

Norway’s Johannes Klaebo won the men’s classic cross-country ski sprint for his seventh Olympic gold with ease.

Ben Ogden took silver to give the United States their first men’s medal in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch’s silver in the 30km at the 1976 Olympics. Norway’s Oskar Vike won the bronze.

Linn Svahn led a Swedish podium sweep in the women’s race, with compatriots Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist winning silver and bronze, respectively.

Austria’s Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber won a surprise women’s team combined gold after US favourites Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on the podium by six hundredths of a second.

Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher took the silver, 0.05sec behind, and Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan finished third for the US.

World and Olympic downhill champion Johnson and dominant slalom skier Shiffrin, the overall World Cup leader, had looked set to repeat their 2025 world championship win but finished fourth.

In overnight action, Germany’s Philipp Raimund won the men’s normal hill ski jumping event as he soared ahead of Poland’s Kacper Tomasiak. Japan’s Ren Nikaido and Switzerland’s Gregor Deschwanden shared bronze.

Japanese world champion Kokomo Murase clinched gold in the women’s big air competition as two-time champion Anna Gasser was dethroned.

New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott had to settle for silver while South Korean teenager Yu Seung-eun won bronze.

Meanwhile, Netherlands speed skater Jutta Leerdam said the weight of expectation pushed her to deliver a “surreal” run and win the 1,000m gold.

The 2020 and 2023 world single-distance champion, Leerdam led a Dutch one-two ahead of Femke Kok, securing the country’s first medals of these Games. Japan’s most decorated female Olympian, defending champion Miho Takagi, took the bronze. REUTERS, AFP