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Sighel bitterness, federation promises battle

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What happened on the short track to Pietro Sighel, who was excluded from the medal fight because of a contact in the 500-meter semifinal, definitely did not go down well with the Italian Ice Sports Federation, which, through the voice of its president, Andrea Gios, confirmed that it “will continue to vigorously protect its athletes in every appropriate venue”. Sighel was in second place in the semifinals when Canadian Laoun dragged him to the ground: an’action, however, not deserving of action in the judge&#8217s opinion.

“We have witnessed inconsistent and contradictory decisions by the same judge in his treatment of Pietro Sighel during this Olympics – thundered the federal president -. Our opinion has been confirmed and is also shared by technicians and managers of other nations present at the Games, who have expressed similar perplexities with respect to what they saw on the ice. This makes the picture even more serious and worrying”. Harsh words, destined to cause discussion even in the aftermath of the competition.

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 in the women’s 5,000 meters.
Stunning gold also for the mixed relay of the short track (Confortola, Betti, Fontana, Nadalini, Sighel and Spechenhauser).
Marion Oberhofer and Andrea Vötter won the women’s luge.
Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner instead won the men’s event, also in luge.
Federica Brignone gave very strong emotions, winning two golds (Super-G and giant) ten months after her 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 took 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 the bronze medal in the women&#039s downhill, capturing another Five Circles laurel.
Also Lucia Dalmasso celebrated a bronze, in snowboarding, finishing third in the women’s parallel giant slalom.
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.
The'umpteenth 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.
Flora Tabanelli captured bronze in the Big Air final with a total score of 178.25.
The twenty-fifth medal for Italy came in the men’s team sprint thanks to Elia Barp and Federico Pellegrino.

“The Federation finds it extremely problematic that the International Skating Union was not able to intervene during the event to put an end to a completely inappropriate operation – the note published by the FISG on the sidelines of what happened at the Milan MSK Competition Rink still reads. We understand the regulations and the role of the competition officials, but when such obvious elements of inconsistency emerge, it is incumbent upon us to intervene to ensure fairness during the event itself”.

The Italian Ice Sports Federation finally reiterated its total closeness to Pietro Sighel, recognizing the value of an athlete “heritage of Italian and international skating”. Thus, again, President Gios: “Pietro has proven his worth on the ice and we are proud of him. We hope and believe that Pietro, together with his teammates, will be able to react with determination and bring home a medal he fully deserves, for himself and for the entire Italian short track movement”.

The finals then rewarded another Canadian athlete, Steven Dubois, a gold medalist in the 500 meters ahead of the Van’t Wout brothers, representatives of the Netherlands: Melle took silver, while his younger brother Jens finished the race in third place, thus winning the bronze medal at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Games.

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