Italy’s 30th medal (10 gold, six silver and 14 bronze) at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games bears the signature of Andrea Giovannini. The 32-year-old from Trentino, having celebrated gold four days earlier in the team pursuit alongside Davide Ghiotto and Michele Malfatti, fought back to secure bronze in the mass start — a discipline in which over the course of his distinguished career he has claimed two consecutive World Cup titles (2024 and 2025), two European Championship medals (silver in Kolomna 2018 and bronze in Tomaszów Mazowiecki 2026) and two World Championship medals (bronze in Heerenveen 2023 and historic gold in Hamar 2025). Giovannini is the second Italian to reach the Olympic podium in the mass start, introduced at the Games at PyeongChang 2018, after Francesca Lollobrigida, who also took bronze four years ago in Beijing 2022.

The experienced Italian qualified for the final by finishing fourth in the last semi-final with 13 sprint points behind France’s Timothy Loubineaud (61), China’s Yu Wu (40) and the Netherlands’ Stijn van de Bunt (24). In the final, it was fellow Dutch skater Jorrit Bergsma who raised his arms in triumph (gold with 68), launching an early break and holding off a fierce late surge from Denmark’s Viktor Hald Thorup (silver with 47), the only skater to pursue the leader. On the third step of the Olympic podium stood Giovannini (21), who, after an extremely tactical race in which he was unable to break clear from the pack, prevailed in the finishing sprint in the battle for the top three ahead of American Jordan Stolz (fourth with 10). (agc)