Olympics, Italia silver in short track. Azzurri reach 26 medals

Tonight, a new appointment with short track skating. Arianna Fontana is attempting again the feat of putting the 14th Olympic medal around her neck, which would make her break the Italian record of fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti. Gold in the mixed relay in short track on Tuesday 10 February, individual silver two days later in the 500 metres - a race in which she has not been off the Olympic podium since Vancouver 2010 - on Monday Fontana finished fourth in the 1000 metres. "The bitterness in my mouth will be additional fuel that I will surely add to the fire for the relay final. I will enter the track even meaner," she said. With her to play for the medal will be her teammates Chiara Betti, Elisa Confortola and Arianna Sighel. The Italian team finished the first of the semi-finals in second place, behind the Dutch sprinters, the reigning Olympic champions. They are the most formidable opponents in the final scheduled for 9pm today at the Milano Ice Skating Arena. "In my opinion they are not so unbeatable. They always compete from the front, they want to control it. We will look for a strategy to catch them unprepared," said Chiara Betti. Also contending for medals will be Canada and Korea.

"The data will come at the end but we expect b>between 400 and 500 thousand more tourists in Milan compared to the non-Olympic period". Councillor for Sports and Tourism of the City Council Martina Riva explained this on the sidelines of a press conference at Palazzo Marino, the seat of the City Council. "We have no reason to think that these estimates will not be confirmed, the city's response is very high. Immediately after the Olympics the Fashion Week will begin, so February will be a very, very important month for tourism. The value of the Olympics will not only be the number of tourists, we are having 24-hour promotion of our city from 6 February, so the positive impact on tourism will be seen immediately after the Olympics. Milan is 24 hours a day on screens all over the world'.

American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal in the special slalom at the Olympic Games in Milan Cortina 12 years after her triumph in the same speciality in Sochi 2014. Silver went to Switzerland's Camille Rast, 1.50 behind the American, and bronze to Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson. In the edition of the Games held in Russia, Shiffrin had climbed to the top step of the podium at the age of 18, making her the youngest Olympic champion in the speciality in the history of Alpine skiing. Italy's Martina Peterlini and Lara Della Mea finished 13th ex-aequo with the same time.

Ukrainian officials will not participate in the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan Cortina after the International Paralympic Committee (ICP) decided to let Russian and Belarusian athletes participate with their flags. This was stated by Kiev Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi, who had described the Icp's decision as "scandalous and disappointing". It was since 2014 that Russian athletes, if they participated in the Olympics, did so under a neutral flag. "We will not be present at the opening ceremony. We will not take part in any other official Paralympic events," Bidnyi wrote on social media. "We thank all officials from the free world who will do the same," he added. The Winter Paralympics will be held from 6 to 15 March.

"We still have so many races on which we can potentially go for medals, however we are overjoyed, it is a deluge, a wave of compliments, it is a bit like what happened in France, you can organise the most beautiful Games in the world, but without sporting results you can be sure that some criticism will start to arrive, if instead they go in parallel it is something wonderful". Thus the president of the Milan Cortina 2026 foundation, Giovanni Malagò, on the sidelines of an event at Casa Italia. 'However, there are still five days to the closing ceremony, let's keep our feet firmly on the ground,' he added. As for the widespread model of the Games, in his opinion, so far it has been a success 'beyond our wildest expectations, but balances are made at the end'.

L’Italia del fondo ha conquistato la medaglia di bronzo nella sprint dello sci di fondo ai Giochi di Milano Cortina. Federico Pellegrino ed Elia Barp hanno chiuso al terzo posto alle spalle della Norvegia di Klaebo e degli Stati Uniti. Il medagliere cresce con 25 medaglie per l’Italia.