MILAN (AP) — Six Olympics, 12 medals. Arianna Fontana still wants more at the Milan Cortina Games.
Fontana won her third gold and extended her record as the most decorated short track speedskater of all time Tuesday.
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Corinne Stoddard, below, of the United States crashes into Kim Gilli of South Korea while competing in the team mixed relay short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Corinne Stoddard of the United States wipes out as Xinran Wang of the People's Republic of China moves past to win while competing in the women's 500 meter short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Team Italy celebrate as they take the gold in the team mixed relay short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Arianna Fontana of Italy celebrates after Team Italy takes the gold medal in the team mixed relay short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Fontana and the Italy team dominated the mixed team relay final to the delight of the vocal home crowd in the first short track final of the Winter Games. Canada was second and Belgium third.
The celebrations were exuberant, Pietro Sighel spun around backward as he crossed the line before cupping a hand to his ear as the crowd roared its approval. Fontana held up her gold medal and a cardboard cutout of her own head, sticking out her tongue to match the cutout.
“This is our home. We’re here to protect it,” was Italy's motto for the race, Fontana said.
“We tried to show it to the home crowd, ‘We’re here, we’re on a mission,’ and that’s what we delivered.”
Fontana started off the relay and put Italy into the lead on her second stint before Sighal finished things off.
Fontana already began the final as the most decorated Italian Winter Olympian ever, in an Olympic career which began with a relay bronze at the age of 15 the last time Italy hosted the Games in 2006.
If her 15-year-old self could see her now, “she won’t believe that I’m still here,” Fontana said. “She will be like, ‘Why are you still skating?’ But I’m sure she will be proud.”
It was a bruising day for Corinne Stoddard and the United States as falls ended her and her team's chances in the mixed relay and women's 500 meters.
Stoddard fell in the relay quarterfinals but the U.S. was reprieved by a penalty for Japan. In the semifinals, she was fighting for the lead when she went down again and was then hit by a South Korean skater approaching fast from behind.
Stoddard has a swollen ankle but “it'll be good to go in a couple of days,” she said in a team statement.
Several skaters voiced concern about soft ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, which is hosting men's figure skating later Tuesday.
“The ice is really tricky right now,” said Dutch skater Jens van ‘t Wout, pointing to “weird falls” and skaters “slipping around.”
Fontana has a shot at another medal in the women's 500, which she won in 2018 and 2022, after qualifying from the heats earlier Tuesday.
World champion Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands was fastest in the heats of the women's 500 ahead of quarterfinals and medal rounds Thursday. Stoddard also fell in that event but Kristen Santos-Griswold and Julie Letai qualified for the U.S.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Corinne Stoddard, below, of the United States crashes into Kim Gilli of South Korea while competing in the team mixed relay short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Corinne Stoddard of the United States wipes out as Xinran Wang of the People's Republic of China moves past to win while competing in the women's 500 meter short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Team Italy celebrate as they take the gold in the team mixed relay short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Arianna Fontana of Italy celebrates after Team Italy takes the gold medal in the team mixed relay short track speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria won gold in the new team combined event at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday when Mikaela Shiffrin surprisingly crossed fourth after wasting a first-run lead by teammate Breezy Johnson.
Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup racer of all time with a record 108 victories — 71 of them in slalom, also a record — has now gone seven straight Olympic races without a medal.
After taking two golds and silver from her first two Olympics, Shiffrin also didn’t win a medal in any of her six races at the Beijing Games four years ago.
Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher of Germany earned silver and Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles of the U.S. took bronze.
“No tricks here at all,” Shiffrin was told over team radio before her run on a course set by an Austrian coach. “Actually it’s nothing to report. You got it.”
But Shiffrin lost time to the leaders at every checkpoint and crossed 0.31 seconds behind — missing a medal by finishing 0.06 behind the other American team. In the finish area, Johnson — who was coming off a gold in the individual downhill — embraced Shiffrin, while the Austrians and other podium finishers began celebrating.
The team combined consists of one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom run, with the times from the two added together to determine the results.
Shiffrin still has her individual events of giant slalom and slalom to come.
Neither Raedler, who placed second in the downhill leg, nor Huber, who had the 10th-fastest slalom leg, has ever won a World Cup race.
Aicher, one of the few all-around skiers competing in every event, also took silver in the individual downhill.
Wiles, who was fourth in the downhill leg, and Moltzan, who had the fourth-fastest slalom leg, both earned their first Olympic medals.
Shiffrin was only 15th fastest in the slalom leg.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin at the finish area during an alpine ski, slalom portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during an alpine ski, slalom portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Austria's Katharina Huber, left, celebrates with Austria's Katharina Truppe at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin reacts at the finish area of an alpine ski, women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin concentrates ahead of an alpine ski, women's slalom portion of a team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin concentrates ahead of an alpine ski, women's slalom portion of a team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
United States' Jacqueline Wiles waves at the finish area of an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Italy's Sofia Goggia crashes as she speeds down the course during an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Breezy Johnson celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
United States' Breezy Johnson speeds down the course during an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Breezy Johnson after completing an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
United States' Breezy Johnson speeds down the course during an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
United States' Breezy Johnson celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, downhill portion of a women's team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
