One medal was the goal, two the dream. Federico Pellegrino, who will leave with two silvers and two bronzes, and Elia Barp made it a reality at the cross-country stadium in Lago di Tesero, in Val di Fiemme, where the final Nordic skiing team titles of these Milan-Cortina Winter Games were awarded, finishing third in the sprint.
Johannes Klaebo, the Norwegian emperor of the final ascent of the Fabio Canal facility, has won his fifth gold medal in this Olympics (ten so far, a record in winter competitions, but he's chasing his eleventh on Saturday), the tenth for the Scandinavian national team in Trentino this Olympics, and the fifteenth overall for Milan-Cortina. But the "distance runner" is from another planet.
Italy remained grounded after the first few races and began to rejoice after winning bronze in the relay the other day, leaping back onto the podium with a medal of the same metal. One of the two they could have hoped for, less than two seconds shy of a difficult silver medal for the United States.
"The crowd gave us an extra boost," says Pellegrino. Barp, 12 years younger (23 to 35), was also delighted, confessing he hadn't hoped to win two Olympic medals: "We knew we could do it," he explains, speaking of the second, "because on paper we're among the strongest teams in this discipline, but it's always difficult to bring it home. For me, today was one of the best days, and I almost always managed to relieve the pressure without any problems."
"We're at 25 and it doesn't end here," commented Minister Andrea Abod on X after the Azzurri's success in cross-country skiing.
(Unioneonline/vl)
