Feb 18, 2026
3 min read
Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti beat the world champions, world champions and favorites.
The noise in Milano Speed reg onskatingskatingskatingfront.The same thing happened on Tuesday with the jubilant crowd pushing the host nation to another gold medal.
Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti won the men's figure skating team gold medal from American world record holders, world champions and favorites Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran.To huge cheers from the home crowd, the Italians won their country's first Olympic title in the event since the 2006 Turin Games, beating the Americans by a whopping 4.51 seconds - a lifetime fast.Giovannini beat NBA point guard Steph Curry to a "night-night" celebration as he crossed the finish line to show it was an enlightening performance.How many hours, days and weeks did he dream of that time?
The United States started the final well and led in the early stages before falling apart.At the same time, the Italians surged forward in the final laps, pumping their fists at the finish, responding to the frenzy of their fans.down, but never landed on home turf, snow or ice.
In the build-up, Dawson, Lehmann and Kepuran said they weren't the most powerful skaters, but they were the best team, aided by advances like aerodynamics-enhancing gear.They have prioritized the event and sacrificed their personal ambitions - Dawson pulled out of the 10,000m last week and lasered the team in pursuit.But that's the nature of the four-year Olympic cycle and it wasn't meant to be.
In Cortina there was another outrage.France came from last in the first heat to win the country's first Olympic gold medal in the men's biathlon.Defending champion and favourite, Norway, won silver while Sweden hung on to bronze.
World Cup champion Eric Perot missed twice in his final shot but his life depended on it as Norway's Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen raced ahead of them as they took to the fresh snow skis.The Frenchman led a team including Fabien Claude, Émilien Jacquelin and Quentin Fillon Maillet through the first line.
It was surprising because it did not look promising for France.He was 20th after shooting twice when Claude missed one target despite using three extra rounds, and had to ski a penalty.He was half-marked by Jacquelin, who moved the team up to fifth place with just one crash out of 10, then took the lead when he marked Fillon Maillet.
Meanwhile, heavy snow disrupted the schedule in Livigno as organizers were forced to postpone the women's snowboard slopestyle medal race and the ski freestyle aerial start.
Safety was a priority as up to 20cm of fresh snow fell in Italy's mountains in 24 hours limiting visibility, fog and roadblocks preventing medical access.Crews used shovels to reduce snow accumulation on the road.
As it is
The Norwegians have two golds to match their best performance at Beijing 2022 while Germany moved into the top five after a podium finish in the men's bobsleigh.
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 14 🥈 8 🥉 9 – Total: 31
2 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 9 🥈 4 🥉 11 - Total: 24
3 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 6 🥈 10 🥉 5 - Total: 21
4 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 6 🥈 6 🥉 1 – Total: 13
5 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 5 🥈 8 🥉 7 - Total: 20
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12 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 3 🥈 1 🥉 1 - Total: 5
13 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 3 🥈 0 🥉 0 - Total: 3
Picture of the day
More reading from the Guardian
'All the curls' soul is dead': the ice melts as they chase him
'No cushion, no seat belt, no airbag': British bobsledder who races blindfolded
Elana Meyers Taylor's victory in her fifth Olympic Games was almost more than gold
The Russian woman held a poster of the Ukrainian team at the opening ceremony
Swiss media have made comments that question the existence of Israeli pythons
What to do today
All times are according to local time of Milan and Cortina.+10 hours for Sydney, -1 hour for London, -6 hours for New York and -9 hours for San Francisco.
Snowboard – 11:20 a.m. 🥇, 2:30 p.m. 🥇: Men's and women's Slopestyle are the final snowboard events of these games.
Cross Country Skiing - 11.45 🥇, 12.15 🥇: The women's and men's sprint finals will be held back-to-back.
Ice Hockey - 12.10, 16.40, 18.10, 21.10: The start of the men's quarter-finals.
Alpine Skiing - 1.30pm 🥇: American Michaela Shiffrin will hope to end the ghost of Beijing 2022 in her best event, the women's slalom.
Freestyle Skiing - 1pm🥇: Expect competition in the women's air final.
Biathlon - 2:45 p.m.🥇: France won gold in the men's relay yesterday.How will the women's 4 x 6 km relay take place?
Short Track Sprint - 21:00 🥇, 21:32 🥇: The men's 500m race is followed by the women's 3000m race.
The last word
I felt we skated very hard.When we had two laps to go, I was like, "Oh, yeah, that's good." Four years ago, when we came to Beijing, we were a bit of a novice.We were new to this event, we built this team from scratch.We are now the reigning Olympic champions.The pressure changed and we had to change our strategy significantly.This time we had to strengthen our relationship a bit, with Canadian Isabel Weidman after Yvonne Blondin and Valerie Malteis brought gold in the women's team pursuit final against the Netherlands.
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