Italy beats the US for the Olympic men's team pursuit speedskating gold medal

MILAN — Italy’s Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti beat U.S. world record-holders Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran by 4 1/2 seconds to win the men’s team pursuit gold medal in speedskating at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday.

Buoyed by raucous cheering from the home crowd at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, the Italians finished in 3 minutes, 39.20 seconds to give their country its first Olympic title in this event since the 2006 Turin Games.

The United States started well and led for the early stages. But Italy charged ahead over the closing laps, extending their advantage. When it ended, Ghiotto, Giovannini and Malfatti raised their arms and pumped their fists. On the opposite side of the track, silver medalists Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran leaned over, hands on knees.

This was was supposed to be, the Americans hoped, the crowning achievement for a trio that owns the world record and took home a bronze from the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran are fond of saying that they might not necessarily be the three strongest skaters, but they know they are the best team around, helped by advancements such as being at the forefront of the revolutionary switch to the pushing method and the use of computer technology to study aerodynamics.

They prioritize this event over individual races; indeed, Dawson withdrew from the Olympic 10,000 meters last week to focus on team pursuit.

But the Italians were simply better, taking two head-to-head races: The final was a rematch of a quarterfinal won by the Italians on Sunday. The Americans were able to remain in medal contention despite that loss because the four fastest quarterfinal times advanced out of that round and they were still second-best overall.

The semifinals and final are based on who wins each heat.

China's Liu Hanbin, Wu Yu and Li Wenhao claimed the bronze for the country's first team pursuit medal, barely defeating Netherlands by .09 of a second in the third-place race.

The women's medal races were later Tuesday, with 2022 Olympic champion Canada facing Netherlands for the gold, and the U.S. meeting Japan for the bronze.

In team pursuit, which was added to the Olympics in 2006, three skaters from each country participate together, and two teams race against the clock in each heat, starting at opposite sides of the track.

The women do six laps for a total of 2,400 meters; the men race eight laps covering 3,200 meters.