#speed-skating

#speed-skating

Each Winter Olympics produces one or two figures who come to define it. The stars whose performances transcend result sheets and medal tables and settle into memory as shorthand for the event itself. For decades, America has waited for their next one: someone capable of cutting through the noise of the crowded sports landscape and centering themselves in the national conversation. Jordan Stolz may be him.

Even before the final pairing of the women's 3,000m speed skating had finished, two-year-old Tommaso was being hurried towards the middle of the track, where his mother had just broken the Olympic record and was on the verge of winning gold on her 35th birthday. When the final pairing of Joy Beune and Isabelle Weidemann had failed to beat Francesca Lollobrigida's phenomenal time, the Italian sprinted through the bowels of the stadium to fetch her son.

MILAN -- Speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida won host Italy's first gold medal of the Milan Cortina Games on Saturday, taking the women's 3,000 meters in an Olympics-record time. With fans rising to their feet and roaring for her as she competed on her 35th birthday, Lollobrigida finished in 3 minutes, 54.28 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of runner-up Ragne Wiklund of Norway.

From the fashion capital of Milan to the dramatic peaks of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Milano Cortina Games the first to be co-hosted by two cities will stretch across northern Italy blending world-class winter sport with a strong sense of history and ambition. Sixteen sports and more than 110 gold medals await, from the raw speed of alpine skiing and bobsleigh to the tactical endurance of biathlon and cross-country.