Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy gets a 2nd Milan Cortina gold, winning the 5,000 by 0.1 seconds

Audio By Carbonatix

MILAN (AP) — Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy claimed her second gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Thursday, winning the women’s speedskating 5,000 meters by an incredibly narrow margin to the delight of the home crowd.

With fans rising to their feet and roaring on every lap, Lollobrigida finished in 6 minutes, 46.17 seconds — just 0.1 seconds faster than Merel Conijn of the Netherlands and 0.17 ahead of Norway's Ragne Wiklund.

“Having seen the times, I knew I had to get a personal record and the Italian record to beat them,” said Lollobrigida, who skated in the last heat.

“I could see out of the corner of my eye that I was green, green (leading), but also knew that the Dutch girl had been really fast in the last few laps, so I had to really give everything at the end.”

Lollobrigida won the 3,000 on Saturday, her 35th birthday, for host Italy's first gold medal.

That was her first gold in her fourth Olympics. In Beijing four years ago, she won silver in the 3,000 and bronze in the mass start while finishing fourth in the 5,000 — 8.25 seconds behind Irene Schouten, who won the distance event by 4.67 seconds.

“The 3,000 is my favorite race and I'm happy I won gold in it,” Lollobrigida said. “But the 5,000 is also in my heart because I won the world title last year in it, so I wanted to prove myself again with an Olympic gold in the same distance. And I did it.”

While her 2 1/2-year-old son, Tommaso, was the star of the post-race celebrations on Saturday, he was back home on Thursday after his parents decided that a nursery school party for carnevale (carnival) — traditional festivities in Italy — was more important than watching his mother go for another gold.

Lollobrigida interrupted her media activities to speak to him and other relatives on a video call. Her mother could be heard telling her, “You kept your promise.”

“I promised her to enjoy myself, to get my smile back and to skate without pressure,” said a beaming Lollobrigida, who struggled with illness for part of the season.

Lollobrigida is from Frascati, a hill town just outside Rome known for its white wine, and her great aunt was the late Gina Lollobrigida, a film star of the 1950s and ’60s.

While there was plenty of support for Lollobrigida, there was as much — if not more — for Conijn, with the entire end of the arena filled with raucous fans clad in orange. The Dutch have historically dominated speedskating and are huge fans of the sport.

Conijn went in the third-to-last heat and was shocked and emotional when Wiklund — in the penultimate heat — crossed 0.07 seconds slower than her, guaranteeing the 24-year-old a medal.

“That was just the moment and I was like, OK, now I’m happy no matter which color it ends up to be,” Conijn said.

Sandrine Tas, who finished fourth, was only 0.3 seconds slower than Lollobrigida.

“I’m very happy because with one-tenth slower, it could’ve been bronze and with two it could have been fourth,” Conijn said.

Also competing Thursday was Czech great Martina Sáblíková, who has three golds among her seven Olympic medals.

Sáblíková pulled out of the 3,000 because of a viral infection and had said she would be able to skate on Thursday but did not expect to contend. The 38-year-old finished nearly 21 seconds behind Lollobrigida and was emotional at her last Olympics before she retires at the end of the season.

“It was my worst 5,000 in my life but also my best 5,000 because the support from my fans, my family, other athletes, coaches was crazy today,” she said.

___

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics