Francesca Lollobrigida had a very happy birthday.
Competing today on her 35th birthday, Lollobrigida led the Italian team to gold in the women’s 3000m speed skating, setting an Olympic record in the process.
The Italian crowd went wild as the local hero raced to the finish line. Lollobrigida fought for the lead after falling behind Team Canada’s Valerie Maltais, who finished with bronze for most of the race. She overtook her rival in the final moments of a close race as her young son Tommaso watched from the sideline.
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The speed skater told reporters afterward that it had been a “perfect day.”
“My family is here watching over me. It’s incredible to be here in Italy. This is a dream come true for me,” she said.
Lollobrigida is the first Italian woman to win a gold medal in speed skating and the first Italian athlete to win a gold medal at the 2026 Olympics. She previously won silver and bronze medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Lollobrigida finished with a time of 3:54.28, comfortably ahead of the silver and bronze medal winners. She finished more than two seconds faster than Norway’s Ragne Wiklund, who took silver. This is remarkable in a sport where competitors finish within 1/100th of a second of each other.
The previous Olympic record was 3:56.93, set by Dutch speed skating legend Irene Schouten at the 2022 Beijing Games. Lollobrigida finished with a silver medal in Beijing. Today, Lollobrigida shaved more than two seconds off that time.
The speed skater took a break from the sport after the Beijing Games to give birth to her son.
Lollobrigida had considered retiring ahead of this year’s Winter Olympics, but returned for his final Olympic race in his home country. On Saturday, she tearfully stood on the podium during the Italian national anthem as the home crowd cheered in celebration of her historic victory. Lollobrigida previously announced that this would be her last Olympics.
“It wasn’t that easy to balance being a mom and being a skater,” she said after the race. “In all seriousness, this is for myself and the people who believed in me and who thought, ‘Maybe she can’t do it,’ because they gave me the strength to prove myself.”
The result was a big surprise, with popular speed skater Joy Buehne of the Dutch team not making it to the podium. Dutch skaters dominated the podium in 2018, and this year’s competitors were expected to continue that trend. The Milan-Cortina Games marked the first time in 16 years that a Dutch speed skater failed to win a medal.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni congratulated Lollobrigida on her historic victory in a post by X, hailing her as the pride of Italy.
“Congratulations to Francesca Lollobrigida on her birthday, winning an incredible Olympic gold medal, Italy’s first and a new Olympic record,” she wrote. “Italian pride, talent and determination. Bravo!”
Lollobrigida comes from a famous family in Italy, including her great-aunt, Hollywood great Gina Lollobrigida, and her father, fellow skater Maurizio Lollobrigida.
The speed skater was previously an inline skater like his father, but switched to speed skating for a chance to become an Olympic athlete. She was inspired by Chad Hendrick, the American speed skater who transitioned from inline to ice skating and won Olympic gold in the 2006 Turin 5,000 meters.
