It was a really glad birthday for Francesca Lollobrigida.
Lollobrigida, competing immediately on her thirty fifth birthday, introduced house the gold for Staff Italy within the ladies’s pace skating 3000m — and set an Olympic file within the course of.
The Italian crowd went wild because the hometown hero raced to the end. Lollobrigida fought for her lead after trailing Staff Canada’s Valerie Maltais, who completed with a bronze medal, for a lot of the race. She overtook her competitor within the closing moments of the neck-and-neck race as her younger son Tommaso watched from the sidelines.
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Afterward, the speedskater advised reporters that it was a “good day.”
“My household was right here watching me and it is unimaginable as a result of we’re in Italy, and it’s the dream of my dream,” she stated.
Lollobrigida is the primary Italian lady to ever win a speedskating gold and the primary Italian athlete to win gold on the 2026 Olympics. She had beforehand earned a silver and bronze medal in 2022 on the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Lollobrigida completed with a time of three:54.28, comfortably forward of the silver and bronze medal winners. She completed greater than 2 seconds sooner than silver medal winner Ragne Wiklund of Norway, which is notable in a sport the place opponents end inside hundredths of seconds of one another.
The Olympic file was beforehand held by Dutch pace skating legend Irene Schouten at 3:56.93, set beforehand on the 2022 Beijing Video games. Lollobrigida had completed with silver in Beijing. At present, Lollobrigida shaved over two seconds off that point.
The speedskater took time away from the game after the Beijing Video games to have her son.
Lollobrigida had thought-about retiring forward of this yr’s Winter Olympics, however got here again for a closing Olympic race in her house nation. On Saturday, she tearfully stood on the rostrum through the Italian nationwide anthem, whereas the house crowd roared in celebration of her historic win. Lollobrigida beforehand introduced that this might be her closing Olympic Video games.
“It was not that simple to mix being a mother and a skater,” she stated after the race. “So critically, this one is for myself and the individuals who believed in me and likewise the individuals who had been like, ‘Possibly she can not do it,’ as a result of they gave me the ability to show myself.”
The result’s a significant shock, with speedskating favourite Pleasure Beune, of the Dutch group, not making it to the rostrum. Dutch skaters swept the rostrum in 2018, and this yr’s opponents had been anticipated to proceed that development. The Milan Cortina Video games mark the primary time a Dutch pace skater hasn’t completed with a medal in 16 years.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni celebrated Lollobrigida’s historic win in a publish on X, touting her because the satisfaction of Italy.
“Congratulations to Francesca Lollobrigida for a unprecedented Olympic gold, the primary for Italy, gained with an Olympic file on her birthday,” she wrote. “Italian satisfaction, expertise and dedication. Bravo!”
Lollobrigida comes from a household of Italian public figures, together with her aunt, the Hollywood nice Gina Lollobrigida and her father, fellow skater Maurizio Lollobrigida.
The speedskater was previously an inline skater like her father, however switched to hurry skating to have the prospect of changing into an Olympian. She was impressed by U.S. pace skater Chad Hendrick, who switched from inline to ice, profitable Olympic gold within the Torino 2006 5000m.
