Medals update: Arianna Fontana makes history with Beijing 2022 women's short track 500m gold
The Italian star won a dramatic final, coming from behind to beat Olympic record holder Suzanne Schulting (silver) and world-record holder Kim Boutin (bronze).
Short Track Speed Skating
Italy's Arianna Fontana defended her Olympic women's short track speed skating 500m title in dramatic fashion, passing the Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting on the fourth lap to win the 10th Olympic medal of her career.
The 31-year-old Fontana had already made history at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, surpassing Apolo Ohno and Viktor An as the most decorated Olympic short-track athlete of all time with her silver medal in last week's mixed relay event. Now she has added another Olympic medal - and second-ever gold - to her collection after finishing first in the 500m in 42.488 seconds.
Schulting had been installed as the pre-race favourite, having broken the Olympic record just two days ago (5 February) when she registered 42.379 seconds in the 500m heats. However, Fontana proved that she can never been counted out, storming back against her Dutch rival for title number 10, which equals the Italian Winter Games record held by Stefania Belmondo.
In addition to the Olympic record holder, the final in Beijing also included the world-record holder, Canada's Kim Boutin, who will content herself with a bronze medal, the same colour as the one she won in this event at PyeongChang 2018.
10th time the charm for history maker Fontana
After the final, Fontana spoke about how she felt during the final and what it meant to her to win Olympic gold - and 10th medal - in a final that contained so many of the top talents in the world of short track.
"I went for it," she said. "I was like ‘this is my shot, I’m gonna try, let’s go for it. I want to win, I want to cross the line first and when I did it was like an explosion of emotions.
"Being in the final with Suzanne and Kim was amazing. To be there with such great athletes. Any of us could have won the gold medal, so for me being there with them made it more special, more exciting.
"It was a great final and fighting like that with them made this final even better."
Olympic record holder Schulting, who had led for much of the race, expressed how pleased she was at winning the silver medal.
"I am super happy with silver," she exclaimed. "I am a bit disappointed I lost the gold because I was so close. It was a great final. It’s great to stand on the podium with such great skaters."