Double gold in 63 minutes, the Azzurri are thrilling in sledging! In Milan-Cortina the company that brings the emotions of Tokyo 2021 back to life

There are those who thought so and those who lie. Do you remember the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which took place in 2021 instead of 2020 due to Covid? There is a day that we all have imprinted in our minds: August 1st. That day, 16 minutes apart from each other, Gianmarco Tamberi and Marcell Jacobs rewrote the history of Italian athletics by winning gold in the high jump and 100 meters respectively.

Well, emotions like this were relived last night in “our” home Olympics, Milan Cortina 2026, this time on the ice of the Eugenio Monti rink. In just 63 minutes, between 7.13pm and 8.16pm, the blue sled won two gold medals that will remain in the annals of the Winter Games. A suspended, very dense hour in which the chronometer smiled at us. First the women’s doubles, then the men’s doubles. Two different races, a single trail: that of speeds over 100 km/h and of a team led by the legend Armin Zöggeler, twice an Olympic gold medalist in his career and now a coach capable of conveying coolness and ambition.

The blue domain between the curves of Cortina

Opening the party were Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer, impeccable in both heats. Always in front, from start to finish, they finished in 1’46″284, leaving Germany and Austria behind. No mistakes, clean trajectories, the sled glued to the ice. A gold constructed with clarity and control, which lit up the audience at the Cortina Sliding Center. And it is a gold that makes history, given that it is the debut of the women’s doubles at the Olympics.

Not even time to metabolise which is up to Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner. Third after the first heat, called to chase or materialize a performance that would have already earned them the Olympic bronze. But in the second descent they change pace: composed start, then progressive acceleration and a burning finish. The overall time of 1’45”086 puts them ahead of the Austrians Steu-Kindl by just 68 thousandths and the Germans Wendl-Arlt.

The Americans Mueller-Haugsjaa, first halfway through the race, give us the dream: they start faster than us, but little by little they slip away, turning the clock red and finishing in sixth place: it’s gold for our standard bearers! It’s a comeback that weighs double. Because it brings Italy back to the top step in the men’s doubles 32 years after the gold in Lillehammer 1994 and twenty years after the bronze in Turin 2006. Nagler-Malleier is also competing, seventh.

A page that is worth more than a medal

The one in Cortina is not just a double. It is the photograph of a mature, competitive, solid Italian sled, capable of winning in front of its audience. It is the third gold medal for Italy in these Games, the twelfth overall and the third in four luge races (but noteworthy are the fourth and fifth places respectively of Verena Hofer and Sandra Robatscher in the women’s luge), a sign of an extremely successful movement.

Pressed on top of each other, compressed by speed and tension, the four Italians transformed a technical and treacherous track into a perfect stage. In that scant hour, sledding had its golden hour. And like in Tokyo, time stopped long enough to become history and write an indelible page of Italian sport.

Italy third in the medal table

Last side note, but not too much: thanks to these results, Italy rises to third place in the medal table behind only the Norwegian battleship, which has always dominated winter sports, and the United States, with 4 gold, 2 silver and 7 bronze for a total of 13 medals (equal to Norway). A truly dream start (and we don’t want to wake up!).

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