The Milan Ice Skating Arena explodes with enthusiasm for the “mixed” blue quartet who wins the first short track medal, the second gold on Italy’s Olympic medal table.
Arianna Fontana, Elisa Confortola, Thomas Nadalini and Pietro Sighel won the title with a time of 2’39″02 and celebrated with Chiara Betti and Luca Spechenhauser who alternated in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. The magic of a practically perfect race.
On the podium were Canada, silver in 2:39.258 and Belgium, bronze in 2:39.353. China, champions in Beijing 2022, remains off the podium.
Tears, hugs, invasions of the track by his teammates and on the lap of honor Pietro carries Martina Valcepina on his shoulders, who had prepared for these games together with the team but remained out after her injury during the European Championships. We have “the best youth” in front of us, hungry to win and with them on the pitch it’s an instant show.
At the finish line with the right advantage, Sighel turns and cuts him from behind. A genuine gift to the fans of the last fractionist, an image that will be remembered as Kristian Ghedina’s split in Kitzbuhel: «It was an idea that came to me some time ago – Sighel revealed – and it was the right time to show it. We had a perfect race. We didn’t do anything wrong” and “I wanted to give something exciting, I did it for the public who pushed us a lot when we took the lead.”
Then there is the awards ceremony, the solemn moment of the anthem, the last notes die off and a cartoon falls onto the track from the stands: Arianna immediately understands and plays along, runs, picks up the mask, it’s her “meme” sticking her tongue out. Maybe this way the emotion is exorcised, because it’s a big celebration even for someone who hasn’t stopped winning for twenty years. «So many beautiful emotions here in the house, there is no better way to start” he explains. This time, however, the motivator was the very young Thomas Nadalini: «He surprised us all, before entering he said ‘guys this is our home, we are here to defend it’», says Arianna and describes what will now perhaps become their superstitious gesture, hand slapping on the chest and then on the ground.
However, luck has nothing to do with a victory like this. «It’s deserved, we worked hard» says Thomas the debutant; “epic, winning a gold at home I think is even bigger than a dream” adds Luca; “sweaty, both from the effort made in recent years and from the heat outside” jokes Elisa and Chiara closes: “indescribable. Something that none of us would have ever imagined. We all dreamed of it a bit but no one had the courage to think about an Olympic gold at home”. Nothing can be improvised, “it’s a relay that we have built – explains the record-breaking Olympian -: Chiara and I are the sprinters, so everyone was counting on a good start; Elisa knows how to do speed, even though she is at her first Olympics, she has experience; we were counting on Pietro for the finale; “Nada” (Thomas Nadalini, ed.) and Luca (Spechenhauser, ed.) even though they are young we were counting on their speed, we were all able to stay calm, focused and not get distracted by anything or anyone.” – adds Sighel – and I think it was the key to the victory: we were much, much calmer and at the Olympics this makes the difference».
Maybe thanks to a bit of awareness or not having pressure, the team was strong on paper but in the ranking the Chinese were ahead. And so while the others were losing steps, “with our calm we interpreted the ice better, it was evident from the first round.”
It’s a team medal, everyone underlines it. “If we emerge it is the result of great team work, from the families to the sports groups that support us, it is the result of always believing in it, of working together, we have shown that we are there and we hope that this will give us the energy for the next days of competition”