CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — In a stunning display of home-track dominance, Italy’s men’s speedskating team captured Olympic gold in the team pursuit event at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium on Tuesday. The Italian trio of Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini, and Michele Malfatti delivered a commanding performance against the reigning world record-holding American team, securing victory by a remarkable 4.5-second margin with a final time of 3 minutes, 39.20 seconds.
The victory marks Italy’s first Olympic title in this discipline since the 2006 Turin Games, achieved before an electrified home crowd that provided continuous vocal support throughout the race. Despite a strong initial showing from the U.S. team comprising Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman, and Ethan Cepuran, the Italian skaters demonstrated superior endurance in the closing laps, surging ahead to claim the championship.
In parallel competition, Canada’s women’s team pursuit squad successfully defended their Olympic title with Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais, and Isabelle Weidemann—the same trio that triumphed in Beijing—posting a time of 2:55.81 to finish nearly a full second ahead of silver medalists Netherlands.
Meanwhile, adverse weather conditions forced the postponement of the women’s snowboarding slopestyle final in Livigno due to heavy snowfall. The event, originally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, was canceled without immediate rescheduling details, delaying New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s attempt to defend her Olympic title after she qualified first in Sunday’s preliminary rounds.
In other Olympic developments, France achieved a historic victory in the men’s biathlon relay, overcoming an initial last-place position to claim the nation’s first Olympic gold in the event. Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro secured his second Nordic combined gold medal of the Games, while the event itself faced protests regarding the continued exclusion of women from Olympic Nordic combined competition despite their participation in World Cup events and world championships.