MILAN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Francesca Lollobrigida powered to victory in the women’s 3,000 metres speed skating on Saturday, bringing Italy its first gold medal of the Milano Cortina Games and ending Dutch dominance marked by three straight Olympic titles at the distance.
Norway’s Ragne Wiklund and Canada’s Valerie Maltais joined her on the podium as the speed skating programme got under way at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium.
Lollobrigida tore around the oval to smash the Olympic record, stopping the clock at three minutes and 54.28 seconds - 2.26 seconds clear of Wiklund - to secure Italy’s first-ever women’s speed skating Olympic title.
It was the 35-year-old’s first Olympic gold, adding to the 3,000m silver and mass start bronze she won in Beijing in 2022.
Competing in her fourth Olympics - and doing so on her birthday in front of a roaring home crowd - Lollobrigida turned the weight of expectation into fuel.
