{"id":455473,"date":"2026-02-08T01:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/455473\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T01:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:23:11","slug":"italians-collect-medals-on-first-day-at-milan-cortina-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/455473\/","title":{"rendered":"Italians collect medals on first day at Milan Cortina Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 The 2026 Winter Games<\/a> are off to a promising start for host nation Italy with gold, silver and bronze on the first day of medal events.<\/p>\n

But it was Switzerland\u2019s Franjo Von Allmen who captured the first gold medal<\/a> of the Milan Cortina Olympics on Saturday.<\/p>\n

There were no Americans on the podium, though Lindsey Vonn<\/a> impressed in her second training run ahead of the women\u2019s downhill on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Birthday gold for Lollobrigida<\/p>\n

Italian speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida celebrated her 35th birthday by winning the host nation\u2019s first gold medal<\/a> of these Olympics \u2014 in the 3,000 meters. It\u2019s also Italy\u2019s first gold in women\u2019s speedskating at any Winter Games.<\/p>\n

Competing in her fourth Olympics, Lollobrigida outskated Ragne Wiklund of Norway for her first Olympic gold after winning silver and bronze in Beijing four years ago.<\/p>\n

Her great aunt was the late Gina Lollobrigida, a star actress of the 1950s and \u201960s.<\/p>\n

Von Allmen strikes gold on Olympic debut<\/p>\n

Italy had a strong day on the slopes, as well, with Alpine skiers Giovanni Franzoni<\/a> and Dominik Paris<\/a> taking silver and bronze, respectively, in the men\u2019s downhill \u2014 the first medal event of the Games.<\/p>\n

However, neither could beat Von Allmen\u2019s time of 1 minute, 51.61 seconds in Bormio.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Swiss skier was the leader after his downhill run, but the wait for his rivals to finish was nerve-racking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to enjoy the moment, but I didn\u2019t quite realize what was going on today,\u201d von Allmen said after his first Olympic race.<\/p>\n

Paris, 36, was delighted with his bronze after coming away empty-handed in his four previous Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my fifth Olympics, and getting the first medal in front of the home crowd, that\u2019s really special,\u201d Paris said.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Vonn feeling \u2018good\u2019 ahead of women\u2019s downhill<\/p>\n

In Cortina, Lindsey Vonn completed another downhill training run<\/a> and was set for Sunday\u2019s medal race despite tearing her left ACL a little more than a week ago.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old American crossed the line in third position and told The Associated Press \u201call good.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has been wearing a large brace on her injured knee.<\/p>\n

Kagiyama stuns Malinin in figure skating team event<\/p>\n

Yuma Kagiyama landed near-perfect quads and scored 108.67 points in his short program to help Japan put pressure on the defending champion U.S. in the figure skating team event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Malinin, the two-time reigning world champion, was second with 98.00.<\/p>\n

But a brilliant free skate by Madison Chock and Evan Bates pushed the U.S. score to 44 points \u2014 five more than Japan ahead of the men\u2019s, women\u2019s and pairs free skates to decide the medals Sunday.<\/p>\n

Disappointment for Jessie Diggins in skiathlon<\/p>\n

Jessie Diggins<\/a>, the most decorated American cross-country<\/a> skier ever, finished eighth in the 20-kilometer women\u2019s skiathlon in Tesero. She finished more than 2 minutes behind winner Frida Karlsson of Sweden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a crash on the first lap, where my tip just disappeared in the slush, and unfortunately it was a tough spot where you lose all your momentum,\u201d the 34-year-old Minnesota native said.<\/p>\n

JD Vance and Jake Paul attend US women\u2019s hockey game<\/p>\n

U.S. Vice President JD Vance sat with influencer and boxer Jake Paul<\/a> as they watched the U.S. women\u2019s hockey team beat Finland 5-0<\/a> on Saturday. Paul\u2019s fiancee, Jutta Leerdam, is a speedskater for the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Finland played two days after the team\u2019s game against Canada had to be postponed<\/a> because of a stomach virus affecting players. Switzerland<\/a> played Canada a day after announcing that one of its players tested positive for the norovirus. Canada won 4-0.<\/p>\n

Norwegian upsets Slovenian favorite in women\u2019s ski jumping<\/p>\n

Norway \u2014 the nation with the most medals in Winter Olympics history \u2014 got its first gold of the Games in the women\u2019s ski jumping<\/a>. It was unexpected.<\/p>\n

Anna Odine Stroem of Norway won the normal hill competition ahead of Slovenian favorite Nika Prevc, who has dominated the sport this season. Nozomi Maruyama of Japan won bronze.<\/p>\n

Gold and silver for Japan in men\u2019s snowboarding<\/p>\n

Kira Kimura won Japan\u2019s first gold medal at these Games \u2014 in men\u2019s snowboarding big air<\/a> in Livigno. His teammate, Ryoma Kimata, picked up the silver medal.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Su Yiming of China took bronze, keeping 17-year-old American Oliver Martin off the podium.<\/p>\n

Big air consists of one single jump off a huge ramp, where the rider varies spins, flips and holds of the board. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 The 2026 Winter Games are off to a promising start for host nation Italy with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[190960,113110,212965,212690,212964,212954,212955,793,212957,212689,52362,212960,212963,198735,212959,87371,212962,212958,212961,212966,45567,212956,200479,99,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-455473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","9":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","10":"tag-anna-odine-stroem","11":"tag-dominik-paris","12":"tag-evan-bates","13":"tag-francesca-lollobrigida","14":"tag-frida-karlsson","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-gina-lollobrigida","17":"tag-giovanni-franzoni","18":"tag-jake-paul","19":"tag-japan-olympic-team","20":"tag-jessie-diggins","21":"tag-jutta-leerdam","22":"tag-kira-kimura","23":"tag-lindsey-vonn","24":"tag-madison-chock","25":"tag-nika-prevc","26":"tag-nozomi-maruyama","27":"tag-oliver-martin","28":"tag-olympic-games","29":"tag-ryoma-kimata","30":"tag-send-to-apple-news","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}