Italy Claims Men's Team Pursuit Gold in Speed Skating at Milano Cortina 2026
On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, Italy's Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini, and Michele Malfatti won the men's team pursuit gold medal, finishing in 3:39.20—a commanding 4.5 seconds ahead of the United States.The Italian trio, fueled by a roaring home crowd, overtook the world record-holding U.S. team (Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman, Ethan Cepuran) in the final laps to secure Italy's first Olympic title in this event since Turin 2006.
The Americans led early but couldn't hold off Italy's late surge. This was a rematch of Sunday's quarterfinal, which Italy also won. The U.S. advanced to the final as the second-fastest overall but couldn't convert their world record pedigree into gold.Bronze went to China (Liu Hanbin, Wu Yu, Li Wenhao), who edged the Netherlands by just 0.09 seconds in the third-place race—China's first-ever team pursuit medal.
Key Notes
The U.S. trio (Dawson, Lehman, Cepuran) prioritized this event, with Dawson even skipping the 10,000m individual race.
Team pursuit: 3 skaters per team, 8 laps (3,200 m for men), starting opposite sides; the faster team wins the heat.
Women's final later Tuesday: Canada vs. Netherlands for gold; USA vs. Japan for bronze.
Italy's victory thrilled the host nation and added to their strong home Games performance.
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