Arianna Fontana won't compete at the 2021 European Championships

Italian short track super star Arianna Fontana decided to not compete at the 2021 European championships which be held in two weeks. 

By Jackob Savard
Photo: Schaats Foto's

The 30-year-old Italian is the first short track speed skater to announce that she will not participate in the 2021 European Championship, which will be held in Gdansk starting on January 22nd. Already seven times European champion, Fontana decided to not battle for title #8 as she prefers to focus on World championships. 

Here's her announcement: 

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Une publication partagée par Arianna Fontana (@aryfonta90)

What do you think of this decision? Will Fontana be the first of many athletes to miss the European Championships? 

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World juniors in short track: Koreans dominate - Brunelle and Balbekov leave their marks

The 2020 ISU World Junior Short track Championships just took place in Bormio, Italy, from January 31st to February 2nd

By Eugenio Secchi
Photos by ISU speed skating & OIS - IOC

The competition included elite skaters from all over the world, a few of them belonging to their own senior National Teams with some already competing in the World Cup Circuit as well.

Two new records on Friday 
The first day of racing, Friday 31st, saw the athletes competing for a spot to battle for the medals which were going to be distributed on Saturday (1500m and 500m) and Sunday (1000m and 3000m relays). Emotions were high from the very start of the competition. Chinese skater Zhang Tianyi skated the 500m in a time of 40.331, establishing a new world junior record in the distance, while Russian athlete Vladimir Balbekov finished his 1000m qualification race in 1.23.690, - again - a new world junior record.

Two medals for Florence Brunelle on Saturday

On Saturday, in the ladies 1500m, Korean skater Kim Geonhenne got the gold medal. She was followed at the line by Canada’s Florence Brunelle (silver) while China’s Li Xuan (bronze) completed the podium. Two more Korean skaters, Kim Gilli and Kim Chanseo, along with Slovakia’s Petra Rusnakova and USA’s Corinne Stoddard also took part in the A final, while local favourite Elisa Confortola won the B final. In the 500m Florence Brunelle got away with yet another silver medal, proving she’s a strong athlete on both long and short distances. Corinne Stoddard got the 3rd place, while victory went to Dutch skater Xandra Velzeboer.

As for the men, Koreans were dominant on both the long as well as the short distance on Saturday. In the 1500m Kim Taesung got the highest spot on the podium finishing ahead of his teammate Ahn Hyunjun. China’s Zhang Tianyi completed the podium winning the bronze medal. Italian skater Luca Spechenhauser got very close to a World Junior medal finishing fourth. In the 500m, Korea’s Lee Jeongmin won the gold medal, while Vladimir Balbekov  won silver and China’s Sun Long got the bronze.

More new records on Sunday
On Sunday, Kim Gilli got the gold medal in the ladies 1000m event, finishing ahead of Corinne Stoddard and Russia’s Anna Matveeva. Sun Long (gold), Ahn Hyunjun (silver) and Balbekov (bronze) were the best men on the distance.

Only three teams took part in the A final of the relay, both on the ladies and on the men’s side. This may have contributed to the athletes skating very fast, knowing they would anyway get away with a medal if penalties were avoided. The Dutch team (Velzeboer, Otter, Wiersma and Dalrymple) skated the 3000m ladies relay in 4.12.019, a new world junior record. Russia and Italy completed the podium.

In the last event of the competition, the men’s 3000m relay, the Korean team (Ahn, Jang, Kim, Lee) got the gold with a time of 3.55.494, three seconds faster than the previous world junior record held by China. Just like their female teammates, the Russians got the silver medal on the men’s relay while Japan won the bronze medal.

For full results click HERE

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[Video] "I needed to escape from everything and everyone."

Arianna Fontana has already made a name for herself in the history of short track speed skating. She started so young on the international scene that it seems like she's been there forever. She came back to the competition this year after taking a break following the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic games where she won her eighth Olympic medal and first Olympic title. 

Here's a video interview conducted in Montreal during the second leg of the 2019-20 World cup season in short track speed skating.

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A look back at the 2019 Alta Valtellina Trophy

The 2019 Alta Valtellina Trophy welcomed skaters from all over Europe and Canada in Bormio, Italia last weekend.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Bert van Lobenstein

The competition included skaters from many countries such as Italy, Russia, Canada, Great Britain who were divided in many categories from Senior to Junior D.

Friso Emons and Elena Viviani Senior winners

Young Dutch skater Friso Emons was victorious in the Senior men’s competition which included a 500m, a 1000m, a 1500m and a 3000m. Emons won the two longer distances: the 1500m and the 3000m, finished 2nd on 1000m and 9th on 500m. Russian Artem Kozlov finished 2nd overall winning the 500m and the 1000m. Finishing 3rd in the classification was Italian Davide Viscardi who collected Top-8 results in every distances. His best performance was a silver medal on 500m. 

Italian Elena Viviani had a great weekend collecting two 1st place, a 2nd place and a 6th place to ensure her top spot in the overall ranking. Kathryn Thomson from Great Britain finished 2nd winning the 500m and Lucia Peretti from Italy took 3rd with a strong win on 3000m.

Russians at the top in the Junior A group

Seven of the ten best men’s skaters and five of the best ten women’s skaters of the Junior A group were Russians including both winners and 3rd place finishers. Svetlana Tyuleneva won the ladies’ group in front of Canada’s Megan Boudrias and Russia’s Ludmila Kozulina while it was Vladimir Balbekov who won it in the men’s competition. Italian Luca Spechenhauser and Russian Daniil Krasnokutskiy completed the men’s podium.

Canadians in Bormio

Young Canadian skaters competed in the Senior, Junior A and Junior B group. The best overall classification performances from Canadian skaters were Juliette Brindamour’s 4th place in the Senior, Megan Boudrias’ 2nd place in the Junior A group, Miao Qi’s 2nd place in the Junior B category and Alexandre Migner’s win in the Junior B men’s classification.

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A look back at the 6 Giorni Rotellistica 2019

The best skaters in Italy and some international guests battled it out at the 6 Giorni Rotellistica 2019 held in Santa Maria Nuova, Italy from the 6th to the 11th of August.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Foto Candolfi - Jesi

The 6 Giorni Rotellistica is a six day inline speed skating event that has been held in Italy for many years. For 2019, the first two days of racing also counted for the European cup classification. Many non-Italian skaters took part in these two first days of racing before heading out to the European cup final: the Flanders Grand Prix in Belgium.  

Lollobrigida et Peula European cup winners

Italian star, skating under Bont Skates colours, Francesca Lollobrigida won the ladies’ European cup in Santa Maria Nuova. Fellow Italian Luisa Woolaway finished second while Colombian Aura Quintana took third. Honourable mention to French skater Mathilde Pedronno for her win on 500m. Patxi Peula from Spain won the men’s Europa cup with an overall great weekend winning the 1000m and the elimination race and finishing third on 500m and in the points race. French skater Elton de Souza finished second overall winning the 500m and placing well on other distances while Italian Daniele di Stefano took the third step of the podium. 

The 6 Giorni Rotellistica 2019 champions

Here are every winner of the six days of competition in every category: 

DANIELE DI STEFANO (Adhp Gruppo Cosmo Noale)

FRANCESCA LOLLOBRIGIDA (CS AERONAUTICA MILITARE )

ONESTI FRANCESCO (Pattinatori Piombinesi)

NEVE GIOSUÈ (rollergreen)

KRYVOSHEIA OLEKSANDRA (Plsu Ukraine)

ELISA FOLLI (DEBBY ROLLER TEAM)

ALICE ROSSINI (ASD NUOVA RINASCITA)

GIOIA ELISABETTA (CSEN ROMA PATTINAGGIO)

CAMILLA ZAZZARINI (Fortitudo Pattinaggio Fabriano)

DI PAOLA ANDREA (rollergreen)

BURR THOMAS (rollergreen)

FEDERICI ANASTASIA (rollergreen)

BOHUMSKY TOMAS (KSBM PRAHA)

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The 2026 Winter Olympic Games awarded to Italy

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games have been awarded to Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Schaats Foto's

Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo will host the 2026 Olympic Games. These games will be Italy's second winter games in twenty years. Stockholm, Sweden was the other bid that was still on the table.

With the competition being held seven years from now, it is almost impossible to predict which athlete will skate at these Games. If you think about Italy, their all time most decorated olympic athlete Arianna Fontana will be 35 years old while their current top sprinter Martina Valcepina will be 33. In long track, top Italian athlete in both ice and inline skating Francesca Lollobrigida will turn 35 during the 2026 games. Will some of them try to keep competing until then and retire after these Games at home? With the Olympics coming back to Italy rest assured that young Italian talents will emerge hoping to achieve Olympic glory at home.

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Torino Day 3: the end of an exhilarating World cup season

After three and half months and five weekends full of hard work and action, the athletes taking part in the 2018-2019 World cup season in short track speed skating met today for the last day of competition of the fifth and final leg of the season. 

By Carl Savard

Photos by Schaats Foto's and Danny Kim

Valcepina gets another gold on 500m

In another high-octane performance, Italy’s Martina Valcepina won her second medal in two days on 500m. This time, she was battling with Suzanne Schulting from the Netherlands, Elise Christie from Great Britain and Maame Biney from the USA. Valcepina was just too strong for the others this weekend. Schulting looked like she could come back but fell while trying to. Christie finished second and Biney finished third. On the men’s side, Lim Hyo Jun won the gold medal. His second win of the season, added to his other good performances, sent him to first place in the season final ranking. Lim was joined on the podium by Kim Gun Woo (silver) and Yu Songnan. After winning the first three big finals on 500m, China's Wu Dajing didn't skate the rest of the season but was still at the top of the ranking until today.

Boutin and Hwang on top in the 1000m, Dubois adds another medal

Canada had two women in the main final of the 1000m and they would have to fight Korea’s Choi Min Jeong, France’s Véronique Pierron and Hungary Sara Luca Bacskai on their way to get two medals for Canada. After missing the first two legs of the World cup season, Boutin came back strong and will surely be a force to reckon with at the World championships next month. The 24-year-old athlete finished first in this weekend’s 1000m A final. Choi Min Jeong finished second while Alyson Charles came in third. For the men, Koreans finished first and second with Hwang Dae Heon finishing ahead of his teammate Park Ji Won. Canada’s Steven Dubois got himself another individual medal this weekend with this bronze on 1000m.

Relay finals

Even though some of the top countries were not in the main finals of some of the relay events, fans in the stands and at home watching the action on the web were not disappointed. In the mixed relay, Russia, Canada and the USA finished in that order while the Netherlands, Italy and Russia visited the podium on the women’s 3000m relay. Korea had crossed the finish line first but was penalised. In the men’s 5000m A final, Russia won gold, Japan silver and Italy bronze.

The bests of the bests will meet in Bulgaria next month to battle for world champion titles. The 2019 ISU World championships will be held in Sophia from March 8 to 10.

2018-19 season's final rankings / Top-3 in each distance

Women’s 500m: Natalia Maliszewska, Martina Valcepina, Lara van Ruijven

Men’s 500m: Lim Hyo Jun, Wu Dajing, Samuel Girard

Women’s 1000m: Suzanne Schulting, Sophia Prosvirnova, Alyson Charles

Men’s 1000m: Park Ji Won, Hong Kyung Hwan, Liu Shaoang

Women’s 1500m: Suzanne Schulting, Kim Ji Yoo, Choi Min Jeong

Men’s 1500m: Kim Gun Woo, Steven Dubois, Lee June Seo

Mixed relay: Russia, China, Canada

Women’s relay: Russia, Netherlands, Korea

Men’s relay: Hungary, Canada, Japan

To read the article on Day 1, it's HERE

To read the article on Day 2, it's HERE

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Short track: A look back at the Alta Valtellina Trophy in Bormio

From October 19th to 21st, skaters from several countries competed at the Alta Valtellina Trophy in Bormio, Italy.

Par Florence Gauthier

Photos: Bert van Lobenstein et Schaats Foto's

At the Alta Valtellina Trophy, the skaters were separated between Juniors (placed in 4 categories: A, B, C and D. A being the oldest.) and Seniors. They all had to compete in the distances of 500m, 1000m and 1500m. The 8 best skaters in each category had to make a super final at the end of the competition.

Mégan Boudrias and Sergei Milovanov victorious in the Juniors

Canada's Megan Boudrias was the winner in the Junior Women category. She managed to win the 1500m and the 1000m, in addition to a 2nd place in the 1500m Super Final and 4th in the 500m. Sofya Boytsova of Russia finished 2nd overall. After a tough final in the 1500m where she received a penalty, she was able to get back and finish 1st in the 500m and the super final of the 1500m. Léa Tessier of Canada completed the overall podium with her presence in each of the A finals, including her two podiums: 2nd place in the 500m and 3rd place in the 1500m super final.

On the men's side, Sergei Milovanov dominated the competition with his three first-place finishes in the 1500m, 500m and 1000m. He finished 6th in the 1500m Super Final, but his lead was so strong that he didn’t lose his first place in the overall standings. Behind him, was Canada's William Dandjinou. He managed to make the A final in the 500m and 1500m and won the 1st place in the 1500m super final. His Canadian compatriot, Nicolas Perreault, finished third overall. He finished second in the 500m and third in the 1500m super final.

Anna Seidel dominates in the women's senior category

In the women senior, Anna Seidel of Germany was the one who won the highest honors. She finished on the podium at each of the distances: 1st in the 1500m and 500m, as well as 2nd in the 1000m and the super final of the 3000m. Her closest competitor finished 50 points behind her. It was Canada's Danaé Blais, who was on the podium twice finishing 2nd in the 1500m and managing to defeat Anna Seidel in the 1000m by finishing 1st with a lead of 0.036 seconds. The only other skater to beat Anna Seidel on a distance was Elena Viviani of Italy in the 3000m super final. This victory helped her finish in 3rd place overall.

For the men's senior category, the competition was closer, but the overall podium was all Italian. Being on the podium in each of the distances (1st in the 500m, 2nd in the 3000m Super Final, 3rd in the 1500m and the 1000m) was Mattia Antonioli who finished in first place overall. In second place, was Tomasco Dotti who finished first in the 1500m and the super final of the 300, although he did not participate in the finals of the 500m and 1000m. Yuri Confortola climbed on the podium in the 1500m (2nd) and 1000m (1st), which took him to 3rd place overall.

Young Canadians are on the right track

Amongst, the other Canadians who competed in the A Juniors, some have managed to carve out a place with the bests. Léa Chamberland-Dostie of Trois-Rivières was third in the 500m. In the men's 1000m, Matej Pederson finished 2nd and Jean-Sebastien Beaulne 3rd with a personal best (1:26.730). Brendan Yamada managed to beat his personal record in the 1000m with a time of 1:26.147 while Philippe Daudelin skated personal bests in the 500m (42.146) and the 1000m (1:26,431). Seeing the results here as well as those previously stated at the beginning of the article, it goes without saying that young Canadians are on a good path in the beginning of the season.

You can find the full results HERE

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