Italian skating legend is looking forward to lacing up at her second home Games, and doing so in two disciplines
After making it to the Games five times and winning a record 11 Olympic medals, Arianna Fontana could've called it a career after Beijing 2022, knowing her legacy as the most decorated short-track speed skater in history was secure.
The Italian legend, however, has opted to carry on, despite a long-running feud with her own country's sports federation, as she still finds her daily routine with a sport she's participated in for almost 30 years "fun and rewarding".
The incentive of competing at a home Olympics for a second time — a blessing very few have enjoyed — and the challenge of competing in both the long- and short-track disciplines have kept the veteran as stoked about lacing up for her sixth Games at Milano-Cortina 2026, as she was for her debut on home ice at Turin 2006.
"Competing at the Olympics in your home country is something special," Fontana, who turns 35 next month, told China Daily on Saturday during the short-track speed skating world championships in Beijing.
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"It's something that not every athlete has the opportunity to do, and I will have the chance to do it twice in my career, so I feel I am pretty fortunate.
"Hopefully we'll have a lot of Italians there during the competition. Having their support and hearing them cheer will be a big push for me, for sure."
Sure, it seems Fontana will need the extra push, as the established short-track speed skater, who's won 17 worlds medals to go with her Olympic haul, is going all-out on a dual mission to race in the long-track discipline as well at next year's Games.
The just-concluded 2024-25 season — her first skating in two disciplines — has proved it's possible to at least try to qualify for both, after Fontana completed a hectic program of racing in five short-track World Tour events and five long-track World Cup legs over the past four-and-a-half months.
She capped off her season at the Beijing short-track worlds in quite promising form, underlined by a fourth-place finish in the 1,000m Final A on Saturday.
"This was a big, challenging season, because I have also long track. I skated double, or even three times, the races that everyone else is racing here," said Fontana, who also placed fifth in the 1,500m Final A in Beijing.
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"So, for me being here, and still having enough energy to compete at this high level, it means a lot for me. It means that the work that we've done is pretty good."
Should she qualify for both disciplines at Milano-Cortina 2026, with her attempt on the long track a more challenging one, Fontana will set her sights on achieving more records, as she is on course to break Italian fencing great Edoardo Mangiarotti's all-time Olympic haul of 13 medals from epee and foil across five Summer Games between 1936 and 1960.
At the Winter Games, her closest fellow medal collectors in short-track, Russia's Viktor Ahn and American star Apolo Anton Ohno, who both had won eight, have retired already.
Fontana's realistic shot at more podium appearances will remain in her strength event, the short-track 500m, in which she claimed back-to-back golds in Beijing and Pyeongchang, South Korea. She'll also target some bonus wins in the mass-start and team pursuit events on the long track.
Whether she medals or not, Fontana said she only cares about enjoying the journey.
"I think just keeping it fun," she said of the longevity of her career. "Even right now, after 30 years of skating, I still find joy when I'm out there, and we always try to keep it fun.
"It doesn't necessarily have to always work, work, work. It's good to have some fun," said Fontana, who began inline skating at the age of four in Sondrio, Italy.
"For me, being on the ice with younger athletes, not just racing, but also training, it's really motivating. And I know for other skaters, when I'm on the ice with them, they think the same."
Another major motivation, or perhaps the biggest one, is the companionship of her husband and coach Anthony Lobello, for whom Fontana fought against her own sports federation.
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In July 2020, during the build-up to Beijing 2022, Fontana decided to relocate to Hungary and train there with Lobello, after her proposal of bringing him into the national coaching team was denied by the Italian Ice Sports Federation.
Andrea Gios, president of the federation, told Discovery+ in December that Fontana will have the federation's full support in chasing her dual-discipline Olympic ambition, alleviating tension between the federation and its biggest star.
"We are eagerly looking forward to seeing whether she can succeed in this challenge. As far as I know, she will make it. This is sports, and she's interpreted it in the best way," Gios said.
Lobello was seen in Beijing over the past weekend shouting loudly from the sideline and looking after Fontana everywhere she went.
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"She is the best person. That's why we are partners on and off the ice. Best athlete in the world, and best wife in the world," said Lobello, a former short-track skater who represented the United States at Turin 2006, before switching allegiances to race for Italy at Sochi 2014.
