{"id":280308,"date":"2026-02-08T08:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T08:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/280308\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T08:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T08:54:18","slug":"best-of-2026-olympics-day-1-francesca-lollobrigidas-gold-medal-moment-quad-god-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/280308\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2026 Olympics Day 1: Francesca Lollobrigida\u2019s gold medal moment, \u2018Quad God\u2019 and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let the gold begin.\u00a0A day after the stunning opening ceremonies<\/a>, the first medals were awarded Saturday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics \u2014 one of them going to one of the host country\u2019s top athletes.<\/p>\n

The Athletic had a blow-by-snowblow running blog<\/a> of all of Saturday\u2019s action, and we\u2019ve taken some of the most notable moments and compiled them here.<\/p>\n

Check here<\/a> to see the current medal count for the Milan Cortina Olympics.<\/p>\n

Italian star wins, celebrates with son<\/p>\n

On her 35th birthday, speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida set an Olympic record in winning the 3,000-meter race<\/a> in 3 minutes, 54.28 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of silver medalist Ragne Wiklund of Norway (3:56.54) \u2014 then celebrated on the track with her 2-year-old son Tommaso.<\/p>\n

Francesca\u2019s last name might ring a bell. Her great-aunt Gina Lollobrigida was an Italian film legend in the 1950s and \u201960s.<\/p>\n

\u2018Quad God\u2019 impresses, kind of<\/p>\n

U.S. figure skating star Ilia Malinin \u2014 a.k.a. \u201cThe Quad God\u201d \u2014 wasn\u2019t quite so otherworldly in the team event Saturday. He did nail a quad flip<\/a>, but didn\u2019t quite nail a quad lutz, getting credit for only three rotations. Malinin finished second in the short program to Yuma Kagiyama of Japan but did help the U.S. reach the team final. Nonetheless, the crowd seemed mostly thrilled by Malinin\u2019s performance, even if it fell short of his standards.<\/p>\n

\"Ilia<\/p>\n

\n Ilia Malinin was the first skater to land each of the six types of quadruple jumps in one program at the 2025 World Championships.<\/p>\n

First gold of the Games<\/p>\n

Switzerland\u2019s Franjo von Allmen mastered the tough 2-mile Stelvio course<\/a> \u2014 known for its speed and difficulty \u2014 to finish in 1 minute, 51.61 seconds, 0.20 seconds ahead of Italy\u2019s Giovanni Franzoni and capture the first gold medal of these Olympics. Von Allmen, whose father died seven years ago, had to rely on crowdfunding to continue his skiing career.<\/p>\n

U.S. women\u2019s hockey continues to roll<\/p>\n

Plenty of Americans contributed to a 5-0 rout of Finland, which had earlier this week been coping with a norovirus outbreak that sidelined over half its\u00a0roster. Virtually all of them suited up Saturday, but it didn\u2019t matter. Team USA\u2019s Megan Keller had a goal and two assists, and Alex Carpenter, Taylor Heise, Hilary Knight and Abbey Murphy also scored. Laila Edwards, whose historic Olympic journey was featured in The Athletic<\/a>, had two assists. The U.S. is now 2-0, having outscored their opponents 10-1.<\/p>\n

\"Hilary<\/p>\n

\n The U.S. women\u2019s hockey team has outscored opponents 10-1 in two games. Bruce Bennett \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

A very happy couple<\/p>\n

U.S. skating spouses Madison Chock and Evan Bates, reigning three-time world champions, dominated their ice dance routine<\/a> in the team event. They scored a season-best 133.23 points<\/a> to their \u201cPaint it, Black\u201d free dance. They will next try for gold in the individual ice dance event.<\/p>\n

Ollie Martin barely misses podium<\/p>\n

In the snowboard big air finals, Martin, the 17-year-old American, stuck a frontside 1800<\/a> to rally from a tough first run. It wasn\u2019t enough, as Kira Kimura of Japan took the gold<\/a>, Ryoma Kimata of Japan grabbed silver and Yiming Su of China captured bronze. Martin finished fourth.<\/p>\n

\"Oliver<\/p>\n

\n Ollie Martin finished fourth in the snowboard big air competition. Hannah Peters \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lindsey Vonn third in training despite torn ACL<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old American legend, competing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL<\/a>), finished third on her training run Saturday. On Sunday, she will compete in the first of three races<\/a> in the most challenging quest for gold in her career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let the gold begin.\u00a0A day after the stunning opening ceremonies, the first medals were awarded Saturday at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-280308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}