MILAN, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Italy's hopes of more home Olympic ice success in figure skating were lifted on Sunday when they clinched bronze in the team event at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
With his best free skate score of the season, Matteo Rizzo strengthened Italy's hold on third place, keeping them ahead of Canada and Georgia, after solid performances from Lara Naki Gutmann and duo Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii.
The Italian team stood up and started shouting "bronze, bronze" as Rizzo went through the final moments of his performance, drawing a huge roar from the crowd as he finished and knelt with his forehead on the ground, hiding his tears.
Italy's team alternated chants of "Matteo, Matteo" and "Italia, Italia" waiting for Rizzo's score of 179.62.
"I knew exactly what I needed to do in terms of score to win the medal," Rizzo said. "I decided not to limit my performance, I felt good so I gave all I had," he added.
"The team supported me in an incredible way and the public was just immense," Rizzo, who joyfully slid across the ice on his knees following his performance, told Italian state television RAI.
"In the end I poured out all my emotions."
Rizzo delivered a clean, yet intense, performance to the music of Interstellar, which culminated with him coming right up the judging panel sitting rinkside, before he pushed himself off the side barrier to drift backwards in the final moments of his routine.
It was Italy's third Olympic medal in figure skating after bronzes won by Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio in ice dance at Salt Lake City in 2002 and Carolina Kostner in the women's singles at Sochi 2014.
The result underscored momentum built over the team competition's rounds, where Italy's skaters delivered the consistency needed to secure a place on the podium in a discipline where the country has long striven to establish itself among the sport's elite.
Team captain Conti said the result gave the team confidence for the individual competitions.
"We know our value after this medal. We'll certainly step on the ice with a different mindset now," she said.
HIGH VOLUME
Italian fans raised the volume for their team inside the ice skating arena, known to the Milanese as Forum di Assago: an industrial‑looking, multi‑level concrete building with exposed pipes and ducts painted red, built south of the city in the early 1990s to hold up to 15,800 spectators.
Milan-born Macii said the home setting had made all the difference and "a minor mistake" on his part had actually brought the public closer than a flawless performance may have.
"The crowd skated with us: they were happy for us, or sad, or cheering ... (as if saying): 'Keep it up, keep it up'. We felt they were on the ice with us: with a perfect performance it wouldn't be like that."
Though the Games have been accompanied by complaints about ticket prices, the arena was almost full.
Alice Galleano, an artistic roller skater from the seaside town of Savona, said she had received the tickets as a birthday gift when she turned 18 in November.
Nunzio Toffano, 61, who sported an Italian flag draped over his torso, said he had bought them in April last year.
"When Italy was awarded the Winter Olympics seven years ago I immediately told people at work I'd take time off in February 2026. I bought the tickets as soon as possible, and here we are."
The blades of the world's top skaters cut across the same surface normally used by the local basketball team Olimpia Milano — owned by the heirs of late fashion designer Giorgio Armani — and where global stars such as Rihanna and Coldplay have performed over the years.
"A medal you just hang it on the wall but emotions (stay with you). We are going to remember this competition for the rest of our life," Macii said.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Valentina Za; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Pritha Sarkar)
