With 13 medals through the first five days – surpassing their total at Turin 2006 – the Italians are the surprise stars of these Games. What’s different this time?
From Milan to Cortina and beyond, the star of the first Olympic weekend in Italy was … Italy.
The electric celebrations started Saturday in Bormio, close to the Swiss border, with a silver and bronze in the men’s downhill. They echoed a few hours later in Milan, where Francesca Lollobrigida set an Olympic record in women’s 3000m speed skating for the host country’s first gold.
On Sunday, the celebrations rolled all over in diverse sports through dispersed venues: snowboard bronze in Livigno, biathlon silver in Antholz, luge bronze in Cortina among them. In Milan, figure skater Matteo Rizzo sank to his knees after finishing his free skate and sobbed tears of joy on the ice. He leaped over the wall to join his compatriots in celebrating their bronze, the country’s first-ever medal in the team event.
In two days, Italy already had more medals (nine) than they had garnered in Sochi 2014 (eight) and far more than in Vancouver 2010 (five). The host country was nearly halfway to its record Winter Olympic tally of 20 medals in Lillehammer 1994.
