Italian Arianna Fontana, whose 11 Olympic medals are the most for a short track speed skater, is adding long track speed skating this season and wants to compete in both disciplines at her home Olympics at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games.
The sport double first crossed her mind more than five years ago while working for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games bid. The IOC chose Milan-Cortina to host the 2026 Games in a June 2019 vote over a Stockholm-centered bid.
“I started thinking about a lot of things, like how many amazing things will happen at that Games,” Fontana, 34, said Wednesday. “My first Olympic Games was in 2006 in Torino. So, to be there again in Italy, 20 years later, and do something amazing, not just for me, but for everyone who’s been supporting me and following me. I started thinking what I could do, how to explore my limits.”
She wanted to pursue long track before the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, but ultimately stayed strictly with short track, largely because the COVID-19 pandemic made it hard to travel to train for both.
“But then right after Beijing, I sat down with my federation and the Italian Olympic Committee, and I was like, I want to do this,” she said. “I’m committed. I want to try, and I’m going to give it a shot.”
Fontana remembered doing two long track races per year as a kid, the last around 12 years old. Her first lap back training on the big oval was in January 2023.
She made her senior long track competition debut three weekends ago at a preseason event at the Utah Olympic Oval outside Salt Lake City. She splits most of her training time there and in Montreal.
She skated the 500m (39.35 seconds), 1500m (1:57.85) and 3000m (4:12.58) on the world’s fastest ice at altitude.
Those times would have ranked her second or third among Italian women in each distance last season, according to Speedskatingresults.com. The world’s fastest women skate the 500m in under 38 seconds, the 1500m in under 1:53 and the 3000m in under four minutes.
Long track races are done on 400-meter ovals, nearly four times larger than short track ovals. Different kinds of skates are used for each discipline, too.
“The long straightaway, I’m still working on it,” Fontana said when asked the hardest part of long track. “On short track, the movements are really, really fast. On long track, I really need to take my time, especially on the straightaway.”
Fontana is focusing on the two newest events on the Olympic long track program: the mass start (which resembles short track with pack racing) and the team pursuit (where three skaters per country skate together).
She hopes to help Italy qualify for the Olympic women’s team pursuit for the first time. The event debuted at the 2006 Torino Games in Italy, where the Italians memorably won the men’s event.
Fontana plans to compete in late October selection races in a bid to qualify for World Cups in long track. She also plans to race internationally in short track this season.
The world championships for both are on the same weekend in March — one in China, one in Norway. She hasn’t decided which worlds she will do, should she qualify for both.
Two skaters have competed in short track and long track at the same Olympics — Latvian Haralds Silovs in 2010 and Dutchwoman Jorien ter Mors in 2014 and 2018, each competing in both disciplines on the same day. Ter Mors won a medal in each discipline in 2018.
In 2006, Fontana won 3000m short track relay bronze in her Olympic debut, becoming at age 15 the youngest Italian to win a Winter Olympic medal.
She won at least one short track medal at all of her five Olympics, including 500m gold at the last two Games. She moved one medal ahead of retired cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo for the Italian record for Winter Olympic medals.
Fontana did not compete in the 2022-23 season after also taking extended breaks in 2015-16 and 2018-19.
She returned at this past March’s world short track championships. She won 1000m bronze, placed fifth in the 500m, 14th in the 1500m and was part of the Italian women’s relay that placed sixth.
If in 2026 Fontana repeats her medal totals from the last three Olympics (three each time), she will move into second place on the career Winter Olympic medals list, one behind record holder Marit Bjørgen, a retired Norwegian cross-country skier.
Fontana can also become the first person to compete in six Olympics in short track and the oldest woman to win a short track medal, according to the OlyMADMen.
“I thought my last Olympic Games was going to be in 2014 in Sochi,” she said. “So I don’t want to say that it (2026) is going to be my last Games or last race, because last time I did, I was completely wrong.”
Most Winter Olympic Medals
| Athlete | Nation | Sport | Medals |
| Marit Bjørgen | Norway | Cross-Country Skiing | 15 |
| Ole Einar Bjørndalen | Norway | Biathlon | 13 |
| Ireen Wüst | Netherlands | Speed Skating | 13 |
| Bjørn Dæhlie | Norway | Cross-Country Skiing | 12 |
| Arianna Fontana | Italy | Short Track | 11 |
