Few athletes can rival short track speed skater Arianna Fontana when it comes to excellence over a sustained period.
Having made her Olympic debut aged 15, weeks after winning her first European Championship gold, the Italian has a record 11 short track medals - including two 500m titles - from five Olympic Winter Games.
Twenty years after appearing at Torino 2006, Fontana is eyeing a second home Games at Milano Cortina 2026. But not content with seeking a hat-trick of 500m short track titles, the 34-year-old is also hoping to compete in long track speed skating.
Fontana has been racing internationally in both disciplines this season. She spoke to Olympics.com at December's ISU Short Track World Tour stop in Seoul having competed over 1500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating round in Beijing just two weeks previously.
"Mentally, it's helped me a lot because it's a new challenge," she said about her new experience. "Maybe not with the stress I have in short track, because obviously I have expectations there, but everything is a bit new in long track and I'm in a growth phase.
"I know that I'm not at my best yet and I'm taking everything in a positive way, even if things may not be going very well."
Arianna Fontana adapts to long track
There are several differences between the two styles of speed skating. One is made clear by the name itself - short track takes place on an oval with a lap length of 111.111m compared to 400m for a long track event.
And while short track sees up to four athletes jostle for position in a heat, the longer version of speed skating sees athletes race independently - except for scheduled crossovers - against the clock.
Fontana actually considered a long track tilt after PyeongChang 2018, with a view to competing at Beijing 2022, but logistical issues brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in her abandoning those plans.
"Certainly the short track is perhaps a slightly more dynamic race," she remarks. "It has multiple races and you have to be continuously ready for multiple rounds.
"In long track, you have to be ready for a single race. That's the part I still find a little difficult - how to manage that situation."
Arianna Fontana attempts to rewrite history
Already Italy's most decorated Winter Olympian, Fontana is currently two medals shy of fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti's national record Olympic tally of 13.
Four of her 11 medals have come in relays, and that is where her ambitions lie in the longer format, specifically the team pursuit where two teams of three skaters race on opposite sides of the oval over six laps.
"The goal is certainly to qualify the women's pursuit team for the Olympics for the first time," Fontana reveals. "The other girls on the Italian team are also very strong and having the Olympics at home means a lot for them too.
"They want to do well. I know they are also training hard. The goal is to have a ready, prepared team and, who knows, maybe even win a medal."
With just over a year to go before Milano Cortina 2026, time is not on Fontana's side as she steps up her dual discipline ambitions. However, she is trying her hardest to get up to speed in her new sport as well as return to her short track peak.
"What I'm doing with the races is trying to understand how to best manage short track and long track, and then training to be ready for the Olympic season."