Italy roars in Olympic downhill at Bormio: Franzoni takes silver, Paris claims bronze

• ALPINE SKIING

Italy seized centre stage in the men’s downhill at Bormio. In the race that opened the alpine skiing programme at Milano Cortina 2026, Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris secured silver and bronze respectively, delivering the first two medals of this Winter Olympic Games for the Italia Team. Also present at the Stelvio Ski Centre was Luciano Buonfiglio, who watched live as Italy collected its first Olympic medals since his election as President of CONI.

“It’s a tremendous emotion to begin with two medals and to embrace Giovanni and Dominik. This is the reward for their hard work. The tension was such that I couldn’t even watch the race: I only lifted my head after the finish, when I heard the roar. My congratulations go to FISI President Flavio Roda,” Buonfiglio said.

For the debutant from Manerba del Garda—who triumphed in late January on the Streif in the iconic Kitzbühel downhill—and for the 36-year-old South Tyrolean, who on the legendary Stelvio has already written memorable chapters with seven World Cup victories (six in downhill and one in super-G), this was their first career podium at an Olympic Games. But the entire national team celebrated, returning to the top three in the discipline (photo Luca Pagliaricci/CONI) at an Olympics for the first time in 12 years, since Christof Innerhofer’s silver at Sochi 2014. Thanks to these two podiums, Italy—counting also Summer Games—has broken the 800-medal barrier (the total stood at 799 before today’s race).

The winner in the Valtellina resort was Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen, who took gold in 1:51.61. The two Italians finished +0.20 and +0.50 back respectively, with Paris pushing another Swiss star, Marco Odermatt, off the podium; he had to settle for fourth at +0.70. Also notable for Italy were Mattia Casse in 11th (+1.67) and Florian Schieder in 17th (+1.96). (agc)

CONI and AIRWEAVE together for the well-being of athletes

CONI announces that it has reached an agreement with Airweave for the supply of originally designed branded duvets to be distributed to athletes participating in the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Games and Japanese Futon toppers to be installed in the guest quarters of the Olympic Training Centres in Formia, Roma and Tirrenia.

The company supplied the beds and linen for the Olympic Villages of Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, going beyond traditional mattress design and focusing on sleep as a performance tool for athletes.

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With this in mind, the use of Airweave products is an additional tool for increasing the daily mental and physical well-being of Olympic and High-Level athletes who train at our Olympic Training Centres. (agc)

Team event: Italy hold firm in the free skates to secure Olympic bronze

• FIGURE SKATING

A bronze medal in the figure skating team event that feels like a triumph. Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri (ice dance), Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii (pairs), Lara Naki Gutmann (women’s singles), and Daniel Grassl and Matteo Rizzo (men’s singles short and free programmes respectively) delivered Italy’s first Olympic medal in the team competition in Milan. It is the nation’s third figure skating podium at the Games, following the bronzes won by Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio in ice dance at Salt Lake City 2002 and by Carolina Kostner in women’s singles at Sochi 2014.

At the Ice Skating Arena, Italy finished third overall with 60 points, behind only the United States (69, gold) and Japan (68, silver). A flawless performance by Matteo Rizzo in the final segment — the men’s free skate — sealed Italy’s ninth medal of Milano Cortina 2026 (one gold, two silvers and six bronzes). The final had begun on Saturday evening, 7 February, with nine points earned by Guignard and Fabbri in the free dance.

Italy entered the pairs free skate in provisional third place, a position successfully defended by Conti and Macii with eight points, before Lara Naki Gutmann again impressed in the women’s free skate (seven points). In the closing segment it was Matteo Rizzo (photo Claudio Scaccini/CONI) who took over from Daniel Grassl, skating a superb free programme that earned a further eight points and allowed Italy to repel late challenges from Georgia (fourth with 56 points) and Canada (fifth with 54). (agc)

A first Winter Games record: never before had Italy won more than three medals in a single day

• MILANO CORTINA 2026

A record-breaking day. Milano Cortina 2026 has written a new chapter in Italy’s Winter Olympic history. Never before had the Azzurri won more than three medals in a single day of competition.

The mark was surpassed thanks to the silver in the biathlon mixed relay, claimed by Tommaso Giacomel, Lukas Hofer, Dorothea Wierer and Lisa Vittozzi, and the bronzes won by Sofia Goggia in the alpine skiing downhill, Lucia Dalmasso in the snowboard parallel giant slalom and Riccardo Lorello in the 5,000 metres of speed skating.

Previously, Italy had reached three podium finishes in one day on three occasions: Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994 and Salt Lake City 2002. In 1992, the medals came from golds by Alberto Tomba in the alpine skiing giant slalom and Deborah Compagnoni in the Super-G, plus silver for the 4x10 km cross-country relay.

In 1994, all three medals were in cross-country skiing: silver for Manuela Di Centa in the 10 km pursuit freestyle, and bronzes for Stefania Belmondo in the same event and Marco Albarello in the 10 km classic.

At Salt Lake City 2002, the trio of medals was delivered by Daniela Ceccarelli’s gold in the Super-G, Karen Putzer’s bronze in the same race, and the men’s 4x10 km cross-country relay.

Milano Cortina 2026 is already part of Italy’s Olympic legend.

Riccardo Lorello wins bronze in the 5,000 metres: Italy’s second medal on Milan ice

• SPEED SKATING

Italy’s speed skating team made it two medals at the Milano Cortina 2026 Games. After Francesca Lollobrigida’s historic gold in the 3,000 metres, bronze arrived in the 5,000 metres thanks to Riccardo Lorello at the Milano Ice Park in Rho. Making his Olympic debut, the 23-year-old matched the result achieved by Enrico Fabris at Turin 2006 and became the youngest Italian ever to stand on an Olympic podium in a long-track individual event.

Skating in the third pairing alongside Norway’s Peder Kongshaug, the reigning European silver medallist clocked 6:09.22, finishing 5.27 seconds behind the winner, Norway’s Sander Eitrem, who claimed gold with an Olympic record of 6:03.95. Silver went to Czech skater Metodej Jilek (+2.53). Italy also recorded a bittersweet fourth place for Davide Ghiotto (+5.62), while Michele Malfatti (+14.00), the third Italian starter, finished 12th, just outside the top ten.

Italy on the podium in Antholz: silver for the mixed relay quartet

• BIATHLON

Italy’s biathletes secured a place on the podium in the 4x6 km mixed relay. On the Antholz track, in the race that opened the discipline’s programme at the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, the quartet of Tommaso Giacomel, Lukas Hofer, Dorothea Wierer and Lisa Vittozzi (in running order) claimed silver, matching the nation’s best-ever Olympic result — Pieralberto Carrara’s second place in the 20 km at Nagano 1998. It is also Italy’s third medal in the event at a Winter Olympics, following the bronze medals at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018.

Italy (photo Giuseppe Giugliano/CONI) lay third behind Norway and France after the first exchange, with Giacomel forced to use two spare rounds in the standing shoot. Hofer also needed two reloads standing, and Italy was fourth behind Norway, Germany and France at the second changeover. Four nations were in contention for three medals at the final exchange between Wierer (one spare round standing) and Vittozzi, who together with the final legs for Norway and Germany launched their challenge on France, which led by just under 20 seconds.

Gold went to France, who crossed the line in 1:04:15.5 (seven spare rounds). Silver, amid scenes of jubilation in the South Tyrolean stands, went to a sensational Italy (+25.8 with five spare rounds), propelled into second by a flawless shooting performance from Vittozzi, who decisively won the duel with Germany (bronze at +1:05.3 with one penalty loop and three spare rounds) and Norway (fourth at +1:37.2 with six spare rounds).

Another bronze for Dominik Fischnaller in the men’s singles: Beijing result repeated in Cortina

• LUGE

Back among the world’s best, back with bronze around his neck. At the Milano Cortina Olympics, Dominik Fischnaller climbed onto the third step of the podium in the men’s singles luge, repeating the result he achieved four years ago on the Beijing track.

At the revamped Cortina Sliding Centre, named in memory of Olympic bobsleigh champion Eugenio Monti, the 32-year-old Italian (photo Simone Ferraro/CONI) secured third place in Saturday’s opening run and successfully defended it across the next three heats, though he was unable to challenge Germany’s Max Langenhan for gold or Austria’s Jonas Mueller for silver. After ending the third run 0.542 seconds off the lead, Fischnaller fended off final-run attacks from Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods (4th) and Austria’s Nico Gleirscher (5th) to finish 0.934 seconds behind the new Olympic champion.

Leon Felderer placed seventh (+1.926), improving on his 11th place from Beijing 2022. Alex Gufler also qualified for the final run, finishing 17th (+4.016). 

Lucia Dalmasso takes bronze in Livigno: Italy back on an Olympic PGS podium after 24 years

• SNOWBOARD

Italian women’s snowboarding is back among the Olympic medallists in the parallel giant slalom, 24 years after Lidia Trettel’s bronze at Salt Lake City 2002. In the PGS at Milano Cortina 2026, staged at the Livigno Snow Park, Lucia Dalmasso won the all-Italian small final against Elisa Caffont to take bronze, in a race won by Czech rider Zuzana Maderova, who defeated Austria’s Sabine Payer (+0.83) in the final. It is the fifth medal for the Italia Team at these Winter Games.

In the draw, Dalmasso — fourth after the two qualification runs — edged fellow Italian Jasmin Coratti by six hundredths in the round of 16 and then repeated the feat in the quarter-finals against Poland’s Aleksandra Krol-Walas (+0.26). The victory guaranteed Italy a medal thanks to Caffont’s progress in the other half of the bracket. Sixth in qualification, Caffont beat Switzerland’s Julie Zogg (+0.47) in the round of 16 and Japan’s Miki Tsubaki (+0.02) in the quarter-finals.

Both Italians were halted in the semi-finals: Dalmasso lost to Payer, who finished 0.23 seconds clear, while Maderova defeated Caffont (+0.45). In the bronze-medal derby it was the 28-year-old from Feltre (photo Roberto Di Tondo/CONI) who celebrated, beating her team-mate by +0.11. Sofia Valle, meanwhile, was eliminated in qualification.

No joy for the Italia Team in the men’s event. Roland Fischnaller, reigning world champion and the most capped Italian athlete in Winter Olympic history (seven appearances), was knocked out by Korea’s Kim Sangkyum and stopped just short of the semi-finals, as was Mirko Felicetti, beaten by Slovenia’s Tim Mastnak. Aaron March and Maurizio Bormolini exited in the round of 16.

Sofia Goggia clinches bronze in the Cortina downhill: third consecutive Olympic podium

• ALPINE SKIING

No one has ever done it like her. Sofia Goggia claimed the Olympic bronze medal in the downhill at Milano Cortina 2026, becoming the first female skier to stand on the podium three times in a row at the Winter Games in this discipline, following gold at PyeongChang 2018 and silver at Beijing 2022. For the Italia Team it is the fourth medal of these Olympics, the third in alpine skiing after the silver won by Giovanni Franzoni and the bronze secured yesterday by Dominik Paris in the men’s race.

On the Olympia delle Tofane — where she has triumphed four times in World Cup downhills — the Bergamo-born star (photo Simone Ferraro/CONI), who started with bib number 15 after a long delay caused by rescue operations for American Lindsey Vonn, who crashed in the upper section of the course just nine days after suffering a knee injury in the Crans-Montana downhill, stopped the clock at 1:36.69. She finished 0.59 seconds behind the United States’ Breezy Johnson, the reigning world champion, who took gold ahead of Germany’s Emma Aicher, silver at +0.04.

Laura Pirovano placed sixth on her Olympic debut, finishing +0.94 off the lead, behind Austria’s Cornelia Huetter and the other American Jacqueline Wiles, both at +0.86. A top-ten result also for Federica Brignone, 10th at +1.19, in her first downhill of the season, 311 days after the serious injury (a displaced, multi-fragment fracture of the tibial plateau and fibular head) sustained in the giant slalom at the Italian Championships in Val di Fassa in April 2025. Behind her was Nicol Delago, 11th at +1.55 (level with Austria’s Mirjam Puchner), the same placing she achieved at Beijing 2022.

Media Day: Italian journalists visit the Olympic Villages of Milan and Cortina

• THE TRICOLOUR TAKES CENTRE STAGE

The Tricolour steals the spotlight at the Olympic Villages of Milan and Cortina. With just three days to go until the Opening Ceremony, Italian journalists already on site at the Games were given the opportunity, during Media Day, to explore the residential units, offices and lounges prepared to host the Italia Team (photos by Ferdinando Mezzelani and Simone Ferraro/CONI).

In Milan, the delegation was guided through the visit by Enzo Bartolomeo, Deputy Chef de Mission and Head of the Milan Cluster, while Dr Maria Rosaria Squeo, CONI’s Medical Director for the Olympic Area, illustrated the medical facilities and organisational set-up.

As athletes from individual and team sports continue to arrive, members of the media were able to gain deeper insight into the behind-the-scenes operations and the initiatives designed to support the daily lives of those who will soon be competing on snow and ice under the five rings, driven by the dream of delivering a medal for their country. (agc)