The noise at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium has been through the roof every time a competitor in Italian blue has appeared on the ice. It was no different on Tuesday with the roar of the crowd powering the host nation to another gold medal.
Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti thrashed the world record-holders, world champions and favourites Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran of the US to win the men’s team pursuit gold medal in speed skating. Buoyed by raucous cheering from the home crowd, the Italians won their country’s first Olympic title in this event since the Turin Games in 2006, beating the Americans by a whopping 4.51sec – a lifetime in speed skating. Giovannini even hit the NBA point guard Steph Curry’s trademark ‘night-night’ celebration as he crossed the finish line to signify this truly was a lights-out performance. How many hours, days and weeks had he dreamt of that moment?
The United States started the final well and led in the early stages before falling apart. Simultaneously, the Italians charged ahead over the closing laps, pumping their fists after finishing, responding to their frenzied fans. On the opposite side of the track, the silver medallists leaned over, hands on knees, seemingly in disbelief. This was hyped to be the crowning achievement for the American trio who set a world record in Salt Lake City in November and claimed bronze at Beijing 2022. But if Milano Cortina has showed us anything it is that the Italians can be down, but never out on home soil, snow or ice.
In the buildup Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran said they may not be the strongest skaters but that they were the best team, helped by advances such as an app to improve aerodynamics. They prioritised this event and sacrificed individual ambitions – Dawson withdrew from the 10,000m last week, with laser focus on the team pursuit. But that is the nature of the four-year Olympic cycle and it was not meant to be.
Up in Cortina there was another upset. France went from last place on the first leg to win the country’s first Olympic gold medal in men’s biathlon relay. The defending champions and favourites, Norway, claimed silver while Sweden hung on for bronze.
The World Cup champion, Éric Perrot, missed twice in his last standing shooting bout but skied like his life depended on it to stay ahead of Norway’s Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen as they headed out to ski tracks packed with fresh snow. The Frenchman managed to take the team, also including Fabien Claude, Émilien Jacquelin and Quentin Fillon Maillet, across the line first.
It was astonishing because it had not looked promising for France. They were 20th after the second shooting when Claude missed one target despite using three extra rounds, and had to ski a penalty lap. He half-heartedly tagged off to Jacquelin, who moved the team up to fifth with only one miss out of 10, then into the lead by the time he tagged off to Fillon Maillet.
Meanwhile, heavy snow tore up the schedule in Livigno as organisers were forced to postpone the women’s snowboard slopestyle medal event and the start of the freestyle skiing aerials.
Safety took precedent as the 20cm of fresh snow that fell in the Italian alps in 24 hours would have limited visibility, with fog and blocked roads also preventing medical access. Workers used shovels to keep the buildup of snow on the course to a minimum.
As it stands
The Norwegians are two golds away from matching their best haul from Beijing 2022 while Germany sneak into the top five after a podium sweep in the two-man men’s bobsleigh.
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 14 🥈 8 🥉 9 – Total: 31
2 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 9 🥈 4 🥉 11 – Total: 24
3 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 6 🥈 10 🥉 5 – Total: 21
4 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 6 🥈 6 🥉 1 – Total: 13
5 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 5 🥈 8 🥉 7 – Total: 20
– – –
12 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 3 🥈 1 🥉 1 – Total: 5
13 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 3 🥈 0 🥉 0 – Total: 3
Picture of the day
Further reading from the Guardian
What to look out for today
Times are all in local time in Milan and Cortina. For Sydney it is +10 hours, for London it is -1 hour, for New York it is -6 hours and San Francisco it is -9 hours.
Snowboard – 11.20am🥇, 2.30pm🥇: the men’s and women’s slopestyle are the final snowboarding event of these Games.
Cross-country skiing – 11.45am🥇, 12.15pm🥇: the women’s and men’s team sprint free final will take place back to back.
Ice hockey – 12.10pm, 4.40pm, 6.10pm, 9.10pm: the men’s quarter-finals begin.
Alpine skiing – 1.30pm🥇: Mikaela Shiffrin of the US will hope to banish the ghosts of Beijing 2022 in her best event, the women’s slalom.
Freestyle skiing – 1pm🥇: expect tumbling stunts in the women’s aerials final.
Biathlon – 2.45pm🥇: France won gold in the men’s relay yesterday. How will the women’s 4 x 6km relay shake up?
Short track speed skating – 9pm🥇, 9.32pm🥇: the men’s 500m follows the women’s 3000m relay.
The last word
I did feel we were skating really powerfully. When we had two laps to go I was like, ‘oh yeah, this is a good one.’ Four years ago, going into Beijing, we were rookies a bit. We were new to this event, we built this team from nothing. Now we’re reigning Olympic champions. The pressure has changed and we’ve had to change our strategy quite a bit. We had to build on our relationships a little bit more this time – Isabelle Weidemann of Canada after leading Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais to gold in the women’s team pursuit final against the Netherlands.
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