Winter Olympics, Beijing: Arianna Fontana speaks

The eleventh gem arrives on the end credits. And it could only end up like this. The most medalist at the Games in the history of short track, she closes her Olympics more beautiful than her, but also the most troubled of her, hitting the last act of the program another record, yet another, the most prestigious . Now in front of all the blue champions in winter sports there is only her, Angelo Biondo, the incredible Arianna Fontana from Berbenno Valtellina. She that she surpasses Stefania Belmondo in the count of Olympic podiums and also becomes the woman with the most medals around her neck also counting the Summer Olympics, in which she commands Valentina Vezzali with 9 podiums. A sprint of two minutes, 17 seconds and 862 thousandths to take this other silver, on the 1500 meters not very congenial to her, behind Choi Minjeong, a South Korean already gold four years ago, and in front of the Dutch Suzanne Schulting, beaten for the misery of 3 millimeters. Gold in the 500, silver in the mixed relay, silver in the 1500: what more could you ask for from the former prodigy girl, able to take the first podium in Turin 2006, at 15 years and 304 days, the youngest blue ever on the podium of the Games, and to be repeated for each of the subsequent editions, until the acute last night, the eleventh chapter of this fable. And who knows if it will be the last …

Arianna, has passed a champion like Stefania Belmondo, now she is the one with the most medals at the Games …

“I have said it several times, I have never aimed for this kind of record. Indeed, I hope that someone else will soon be able to beat it. But this does not mean that I am very honored and proud to be in the lead of so many great champions who have made history”.

He took the silver for 3 thousandths of a second …

“It was a beautiful final, fought from the beginning. During the race I told myself to stay calm. ‘Don’t fret, keep as much energy as possible’. Then, with four laps to go, I broke the delay. another medal. Gold wasn’t that far off. ”

Was it your best Olympics ever?

“Yes. And to say that in PyeongChang (where he won gold over 500, silver in relay and bronze over 1000; ed) I said that it would be very difficult to do better … How did I do it? in the final in all my races and I succeeded. I owe everything to the work done, to my and Anthony’s stubbornness (Lobello, the coach husband; ed). We never gave up, we supported each other to get here at 110 for 100 “.

And what do these tears mean?

“Now the tension of the whole Olympics is coming out. I had to hold back many things. In the next few days I will be able to throw out everything I have inside”.

After each medal he always gave the impression of not being able to fully enjoy it, there was always a torment to externalize …

“Who knows everything I had to go through to be here, knows it wasn’t easy. Every day I had to gather all my energy to be able to train. But Anthony always believed in me. He promised me that I would come here and I would be was able to fight for the medal over every distance. We made every decision to be ready to give everything, despite what was thrown at us. ”

Even after the gold on the 500 has vented.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to get out, but I could never let go completely because I had to stay focused. Now I will enjoy the medals with the people who have always supported me., First of all my family.”

Do you think there is room to recompose with the Federation, given that this is the theme?

“I don’t know, after President Gios’ last exit … He said they will do everything to have Arianna again, but according to their rules. I had to leave Italy to be able to do what I did. to their rules and their system. After this point of Josh, I don’t think there are good hopes … “.

So what do we do for Milan-Cortina?

“It would be a dream to be there, to close the perfect circle after Turin. But I can’t do another four years like this. We’ll see if anything changes, if there are the right bases from which to start again.”

There are those who have hypothesized a change of his nationality.

“I am very proud to be Italian and to have won for Italy. If I continue to compete, I will do it only for Italy. I could never do it for another country. I would rather retire.”

And the story of the teammates who targeted her in training to make her fall?

“Old story. Which was only one … Everyone makes mistakes. I know how to forgive, even if I don’t forget”.

But is this comrade here in Beijing?
“Yup”.

When asked about the subject, Yuri Confortola, the veteran of the group, fresh from the bronze medal in the relay, did not hold back from answering. “I’ve never had problems with Arianna. And I don’t like talking about things that don’t concern me. I certainly haven’t been. If it happened, I wasn’t there.”