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A Gong hit infuriates and brings tears to Arianna Fontana’s eyes

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The 1,000-meter short track final at Milan Cortina 2026 ended in a very bitter way for Arianna Fontana. In fact, the champion from Valtellina, in search of the absolute record of Olympic medals for an Italian athlete (a record currently shared with fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti) remained at the foot of the podium in a race marked by a controversial contact with Chinese rival Gong Li, an episode that changed the face of the race and ignited the post-race controversy.

“It makes anger to finish a final in this way, so it is impossible to fight for the podium – thundered Arianna Fontana speaking to reporters, in the mixed zone -. I had managed to keep a good pace, I was preparing the attack to the first position, then I was pushed. There&#8217s a lot of bitterness about that ‘shove’ the contact took away my chance to play it. It&#8217s definitely part of the game and this discuplina, you have to accept how it&#8217s gone. Maybe in a little while’when I am alone in the room, I will have a cry, but then I have to refocus because in two days there is the relay race”.

Francesco LuciveroAll the Azzurri medals in Milan Cortina 2026: photos

Francesca Lollobrigida won two golds in speed skating, in the women’s 3,000 and 5,000 meters.
Splendid gold also for the mixed short track relay team (Confortola, Betti, Fontana, Nadalini, Sighel and Spechenhauser).
Marion Oberhofer and Andrea Vötter came out on top in the women’s luge.
Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner, on the other hand, won the men’s event, again in luge.
Federica Brignone gave very strong emotions, winning two golds (Super-G and giant) ten months after the serious accident.
With the'gold won on Sunday, February 15, Lisa Vittozzi gave the first Olympic success to the Italian biathlon.
Double podium position for the Azzurri in the men’s downhill: Giovanni Franzoni silver, Dominik Paris bronze.
Dorothea Wierer, Tommaso Giacomel, Lukas Hofer and Lisa Vittozzi won the'silver in the 4×6 km mixed biathlon.
Arianna Fontana also won an individual silver in short track, in the 500 meters, equaling fencer Mangiarotti’s 13 Olympic medals.
Michela Moioli and Lorenzo Sommariva were awarded the silver medal for second place in the team snowboard cross.
Sofia Goggia won a bronze medal in the women’s downhill, capturing another Five Circles laurel.
Even Lucia Dalmasso celebrated a bronze, in snowboarding, finishing third in the women’s parallel giant.
In a'crazy edition for the Italian luge, Dominik Fischnaller’s bronze in the men’s individual race is also recorded.
Bronze also for the Italian figure skating team (Rizzo, Grassl, Gutmann, Conti, Macii, Guignard and Fabbri).
Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner confirmed on the Olympic curling podium, winning bronze in the mixed doubles.
Yet another Italian luge medal is the bronze in the mixed relay (Hofer, Vötter, Oberhofer, Fischnaller, Rieder and Kainzwaldner).
Michela Moioli also found a medal in the individual: excellent bronze for her, recovering from a bad fall in training.
Davide Graz, Elia Barp, Martino Carollo and flag bearer Federico Pellegrino cheered for the splendid bronze in the men’s cross-country relay.

“We return to the Olympic Village with a bitter taste in our mouths, but what happened today will be additional gasoline that we will add to the fire for the next competitions” then concluded Arianna Fontana, who in this edition of the Winter Olympics won the’gold in the mixed relay together with Elisa Confortola, Chiara Betti, Thomas Nadalini, Pietro Sighel and Luca Spechenhauser, in addition to the’individual silver in the 500 meters. In the 1000, however, the gold went to Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands, the silver to Canada&#8217s Courtney Sarault and the bronze to Korea&#8217s Kim Gilli.

The gold was won by Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands, the silver by Canada&#8217s Courtney Sarault and the bronze by Korea&#8217s Kim Gilli.

Fontana, beyond the medals and what happened today, had also been featured for another controversy, this time internal, with relay teammate Pietro Sighel. The Trentino athlete, in fact, had pointed out the “remoteness” of the Valtellinese with the rest of the blue team, even going so far as to say: “Who knows her? ”.

The response, in tone, came promptly from Fontana herself: “These are words that do not deserve my attention: if I had not wanted to be part of the team I would not have gone to Bormio to train, I would have stayed abroad”. Sighel then clarified his position by explaining that he was referring to the team&#8217s technical path in recent years, without questioning the athlete&#8217s qualities.

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