The Milanese skater, silver medalist at the European Championships, achieves a remarkable feat, winning an Olympic medal in his first appearance at the Games. “My whole family is here, my friends, my grandparents. It’s wonderful.”
An Olympic podium at 23, ten minutes from home. Pau Gasol, world basketball legend, presented him with his medal. Riccardo Lorello is a lucky guy and, above all, blessed with talent. His 5000 meters on the Rho track go down in Italian speed skating history, 24 hours after Francesca Lollobrigida’s (equally incredible) gold medal. Both are very talented, as is the entire Italian ice skating technical sector. And to think that the Games have only just begun. The seventh medal for Italy in these Games goes to the 23-year-old from Milan, who turned 23 in December and finished third in a stellar race, which ended with an Olympic record set by Norway’s Eitrem (6’03″95), already the world record holder. Davide Ghiotto finished fourth, 5.62 seconds behind the winner and 35 hundredths of a second off the podium, a disappointment for the 10,000m world champion, who still has time to make up for it in the Italian Olympics.
In the race, which also saw Czech Jilek take silver and Italian Michele Malfatti finish twelfth, Lorello took another step forward after winning silver at the European Championships in Poland in January. “That was my first high-level competition, but the Olympics are something else,” he said immediately after his race. “During the race, I didn’t think about anything. To be honest, I don’t remember much. It was over in a flash,” he confessed with a smile. “I only remember Matteo Anesi’s scoreboard and Maurizio Marchetti’s shouts,” he said, referring to the coaches of a national team that could repeat the extraordinary Olympics of twenty years ago in Turin with two golds and one bronze in the long track. “In the last two laps, I thought about the Olympic record, I admit, and I got excited. I realized I had set a great time, but I was also sure that on ice like this, the Olympic record would be smashed.”
FAMILY— The tearful embrace with his father Adriano, from whom he inherited his passion for wheels before turning to blades, was wonderful. “I have my whole family here, my friends, my grandparents. It’s wonderful.” The race in Rho, which was also attended by US Vice President J.D. Vance and the Dutch royal family, was very fast. The gold went to Norway’s Sander Eitrem: 6’03″95 and an Olympic record. In second place was the Czech Jilek, 2.53 seconds behind. Lorello is clearly at his first Olympic Games after his first World Championships in Hamar, Norway, where he finished sixth in the 5000 meters. He has a passion for motorcycles and his idol is Valentino Rossi. Someone who loves to race fast like him.
