MILAN, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Italian Olympic champion Niccolo Macii, who skates in pairs with Sara Conti, said he had to bite his tongue to avoid giving directions to the bus driver ferrying athletes from the Olympic village to the ice arena.
Macii's hometown of Milan and the ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo are hosting Italy's third Winter Olympics.
Conti and Macii were Italy's first pair to claim a European title, winning gold in Finland in 2023, and they returned to the continental podium two years later with silver in Estonia.
"We're not in Italy - this is not Rome or Turin - we're right home," Macii told reporters after a training session on Wednesday evening.
"She skated here for years and I used to live not far from here. Earlier, when I saw our bus driver wasn't taking the quickest route here I wanted to tell him: 'Look, you should have turned there'."
"We know 50% of the volunteers and the other 50% know us. So you've really got to be careful you're not spending all your time talking to someone," he added.
Conti said her knee injury, which forced the pair to withdraw from the 2026 European Championships held in January in Sheffield, had shortened their preparation time for the Olympics.
"We had a bit less time than usual, so we're really focusing on doing what we need to do every day," she said.
Competing together since 2019, the pair delivered Italy's first world championship podium in pairs skating with bronze medals in 2023 and 2025.
They have been regular fixtures on the international circuit, winning eight medals on the ISU Grand Prix series and reaching the Grand Prix Final three times.
"The injury happened because we were really tired," Macii said. "It came for a reason."
Conti and Macii will make their Olympic debut on Friday in the pairs short programme in the team event.
Conti said she had asked her dressmaker to decorate the brace she wears on her right knee to protect strained ligaments.
"I do like everything in my attire to be just perfect ... but I don't feel safe without it (the brace)," she said.
(Reporting by Valentina Za and Elvira Pollina; Editing by Ed Osmond)
