Paris 2024 Olympics, mixed march: bitter final for Palmisano-Stano

Gold medal to Spanish couple Perez-Martin

In the mixed march relay, an absolute novelty as far as the Olympics are concerned, the Palmisano-Stano duo had an excellent race but, in the last fraction, with Antonella Palmisano in play, came the collapse that extinguished the medal dream. Decisive, in fact, the’last relay with Antonella Palmisano who did not have the strength necessary to maintain the momentary third place. The Italian struggled enormously in the last 7 km of the race, being overtaken by several athletes, confirming that she was not in great physical condition. The blue pair finished in sixth place overall.

Great victory for Spain, which, thanks to the Perez-Martin pair, took home a well-deserved gold medal. The two Spaniards maintained an unsustainable pace for all opponents (2 hours 50 minutes and 31 seconds). Silver medal for Ecuador (Pintado-Morejon), third the Australian pair Cowley-Montag.

Antonella Palmisano, the reigning Olympic champion, had withdrawn from the 20 km march while Massimo Stano, who arrived in Paris not in the best physical condition and with only 55 days of preparation, had to settle for fourth place in the men’s 20 km march.

The medal count in Paris 2024, after Mattia Furlani's exploit, thus remains at a total of 26 for the Italian expedition. Italy had won a total of 40 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, setting a new record in terms of spoils in a single edition of the Games. On that occasion, there had been 10 gold medals, as many silver medals and 20 bronze medals.