MILAN: An inspired Italy delighted the home crowd with a stunning win in the Winter Olympics men’s team pursuit final, while Canada’s Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann delivered another seamless performance to beat the Netherlands in the women’s event and retain their title on Tuesday.

Italy’s men upset the US, who arrived at the Games as world champions and strong favourites.

Spurred on by double Olympic champion Francesca Lollobrigida, the Italian team of Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti electrified a frenzied arena as they stormed to a time of three minutes 39.20 seconds, 4.51 seconds clear of the Americans, with China taking bronze.

The roar inside the Milano Speed Skating Stadium as Italy powered home was thunderous as the crowd rose to their feet, cheering the host nation to one of their most special golds.

Italy now top the speed skating medal table at Milano Cortina with three golds and one bronze, and sit second overall with nine golds, four silvers and 11 bronze medals. Norway lead the overall standings with 13 golds.

The American trio of Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman — who call themselves the “Pain Train” — had hoped to deliver the United States’ first Olympic title in the event.

Meanwhile, Canada’s women crossed the line 0.96 seconds ahead of the Netherlands, stopping the clock at two minutes 55.81 seconds, and Japan rounded out the women’s podium by beating the US in the Final B. It was only the third gold medal of the Games for Canada, following Mikael Kingsbury’s win in men’s dual moguls and Megan Oldham’s victory in women’s freestyle skiing big air.

Earlier on Tuesday, France’s Eric Perrot overcame a wobble on the final shoot and a late surge from Norway’s Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen to win a sensational first men’s relay gold medal for his country. Christiansen did his best but could not close the gap on the last lap and had to be content with the silver medal, 9.8 seconds behind the winners. Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson shot clean on his final visit to the range to secure bronze for his team.

In the big hill event, Jens Oftebro won his second nordic combined gold medal of the Games, the Norwegian adding the big hill to the normal hill combined title.

The 25-year-old could make it a treble when he and his compatriots defend their crown from the 2022 Beijing Games in the team combined on Thursday.

Oftebro — whose older brother Einar was sixth in Tuesday’s event — was 22 seconds off leader Ryota Yamamoto after the ski jump.

However, he was unstoppable in the 10 kilometres cross country ski, beating Austria’s Johannes Lamparter, who also took silver in the normal hill, with Ilkka Herola of Finland filling third spot.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2026