Francesca Lollobrigida never stops smiling, the unproductive effort of the mass start that left her with the wooden medal doesn’t even leave a tiny chip on her: «I made a mistake, I should have launched the sprint earlier, I stayed in the middle and there I lost the medal». Francesca says it smiling, grateful to the world and to the life of what the luminous, perhaps temporary, perhaps who knows, ice of Milan has given her. She returns home with two golds but the best memory will be she says: «The love I received, which I continue to receive, is truly unthinkable for someone who comes from ice speed skating. So, in my opinion, this is what I take home from Milano Cortina more than the two golds». You almost can’t believe you have left the shadow of the ice ring, the most profitable sport of this Olympics but so far one of the darkest.
There has already been word of an invitation to Sanremo, she takes her time elegantly: «It’s obvious that we in speed skating can only be pleased to have opportunities to talk about our sport even outside of the Olympics. But I have to organize myself. I have to see if I can figure it out for a moment: the last three years after becoming a mother have been challenging, not just for me. Even for my husband, it was quite difficult for my sister. I still have the World Cup All roundbut then I want to fully enjoy being a wife and mother, I saw Tommy after a week and he already seems older than a week ago. However, the world of sport is now my world, we will always be part of each other, I’m not one of those who, when the time comes to hang up their skates, will turn their backs on the world of sport: I want to stay in it, lend a hand and a bit of encouragement to young people.” The image he chooses for himself of this Olympics is the one that has remained in everyone’s hearts: «Seeing my son in the stands was the icing on the cake. But not all the heat both on the track and at home is indescribable, maybe it’s because we’re just not used to it.” We talk about what it was like to suddenly discover myself as a symbolic mother for the country: «On the one hand, I like it in the sense that taking my son was a spontaneous gesture, made from the heart, many understood and saw it as a genuine good gesture, I don’t like the fact that the child was criticized” and here Francesca’s sea green eyes become shiny, just slightly, but perceptibly: “There are much more important things than gossiping or speaking badly about a two and a half year old.”
No problem, indeed in being recognized on the street as the mother before the two gold medals, because this is how it was told: «But I liked that a lot because it was my choice, this doesn’t mean that everyone should take me as an example, but I was pleased to demonstrate that in my sport motherhood can be reconciled with very high level results, it seems like a positive thing to me that after me skating, the Federations, are starting to conceive motherhood as something possible. What I didn’t think of and what surprised and excited me the most were the messages from so many mothersthe most beautiful thing of all that also takes away the criticism. The fact that they recognize me as the athlete-mother and that they ask me for photos on the street is new to me.”
Someone points out to her that this fact about her mother ended up overshadowing the two gold medals, that it seems that we talked more about that than about the competitions: «I started talking about it, defining myself as an athlete-mother. That’s how I feel. I thank those who thought of defending me by making this reasoning, but I don’t find it at all diminutive that people look at me as a mother, in fact I’m proud of it.”
Even with Elana Meyers Taylor, Olympic monobob champion, whose story went around the world due to the video in which she communicated her victory to her deaf children in sign language, there are contacts: «We follow each other», she says, «I complimented her and she wrote to me that I was even an inspiration for her, I said no, well, you’re great. These are the beautiful messages that the world of sport sends.”
