Francesca Lollobrigida added another major title to her Olympic resume this week, but her son stole the show in the press conference.

In a lighthearted family moment during the Italian speed skater’s post-race presser after securing gold, she was answering questions from reporters as her son decided to have his own moment at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

Lollobrigida’s young son Tommaso was seated beside her, reaching up as she was answering a question in an interview with Rai Sport on Sunday.

Tommaso grabbed his mother’s face, attempting to “shush” her as she was talking.

Lollobrigida attempted to fend him off, cracking a smile, but continuing the interview.

Her son then pulled her hat off her head while she was talking.

Lollobrigida, also celebrating her 35th birthday, won the gold medal in the 3,000-meter women’s speed skating on Saturday, setting an Olympic record in the process, with a time of 3:54.28.

“My family was here watching me and it’s incredible because we’re in Italy, and it’s the dream of my dream,” she said.

Lollobrigida is the first Italian woman in history to win gold in speedskating, and she also became the first Italian athlete to win gold during this year’s Olympics.

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

She previously earned a silver and bronze medal in the 2022 Bejing Olympics.

“Aside from doing this for me, I did it for him, so one day he will be proud of me,” Lollobrigida said of her son. “Not just for being an Olympic champion, but because of the full journey we’ve lived together.”

She added, “This was to show the people that you can be a mom and come back to be much stronger.”

Reveling in her accomplishment, she admitted that she contemplated abandoning the journey altogether earlier this year.

“In the beginning of the season, I really wanted to give up,” Lollobrigida said. “But then the people who really believed in me said, ‘No, you really need to fight.’”

The Winter Olympics 2026 in Italy’s Milan and Cortina have been struck by a “Penisgate” scandal in which ski jumpers are allegedly injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid to help them fly further. So far, no ski jumpers at the Milano Cortina 2026 are using such malpractices, but similar things have happened in the past, and there’s a fear some may do the same at the world’s biggest stage.

Keeping the concerns in mind, World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka was recently bombarded with questions over athletes injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises to gain a competitive advantage. Banka didn’t have a clear answer as he said with a smile that “Ski jumping is very popular in Poland [his home country], so I promise you I’m going to look at it.”

It may be new for WADA, who are tasked with catching the wrongdoers and dopers, but it’s not some conspiracy theory. German newspaper Bild reported in January that there are “heated discussions behind the scenes” in the ski jumping community that athletes might be turning to injections before undergoing the 3D scan for their competition suit.

How does it help?

Injecting hyaluronic acid into a penis could result in increasing the size of the athlete’s package just before the 3D scanning. This way, a jumper would be able to get a larger size suit. Now, if you are wondering that even with the help of the injection, the change in size might be just a few centimetres, it’s important to note that a 2cm change in the suit size could also lead to a massive competitive advantage.

According to a study in the scientific journal Frontiers, a 2cm increase in suit size circumference increased the lift by 5% and reduced drag by 4%. Reportedly, with a 2cm size, an extra 5.8 metres in jump length can be gained.

Last year, two Olympic medallists from Norway, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, were handed a three-month suspension after it was found that their team had illegally altered the seams of their suits around the penis area during the World Ski Championships 2025.

The suspension was handed because a larger size suit reduced the descent rate due to a bigger wingspan, giving unfair advantage to the jumpers.

Norway head coach Magnus Brevik, assistant coach Thomas Lobben, and staff member Adrian Livelten were also suspended for 18 months.

Ski jumpers using injection, clay to increase penis size

According to Bild, jumpers do not want to take the risk of adjusting their suits, and have moved on to more ingenious methods like injecting penises with hyaluronic acid or putting clay inside underwear before the 3D scan that is taken from the lowest point of their genitals.

This helps athletes make their genitals larger temporarily, resulting in much bigger suits and better performance. After the 3D scan, the injection would be dissolved or removed.

Talking about the news performance-enhancing malpractices, Dr Kamran Karim of the Maria-Hilf Hospital in Germany told Bild, “It is possible to achieve a temporary, visible thickening of the penis with injections of paraffin or hyaluronic acid. However, this does not result in any lengthening. Such an injection is not medically indicated and carries risks.”

But organisers are not yet alarmed.

Oliver Niggli, the director general of the Winter Olympics 2026 organisation team, has said that he was “not aware of the details of ski jumping and how it can improve, but if anything was to come to the surface, we would look at anything if it is actually doping related.”

“We don’t do other means of enhancing performance, but our list committee would certainly look into whether this would fall into this category. But I hadn’t heard about that until you mentioned it.”

Only time will tell how many athletes inject their penises with chemicals or use clay to gain an advantage, but it’s clear that some are ready to go to ‘great lengths’ to win a medal.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics officially open with a star-studded opening ceremony at the San Siro Stadium on Friday (February 6, 2026).

The most geographically dispersed Games in history will start in Italy’s economic capital at 1900 GMT with a three-hour extravaganza that takes in the three other sites spread across the Alps and the Dolomites.

While details of the ceremony remain secret, the theme of harmony runs through it, threading together different elements from the financial hub of Milan to the snow-capped mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo.

And for the first time the 2,900 athletes will parade in the venues closest to where they will compete, in a bid to minimise travel. They will be in Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo.

United States’ Oliver Martin competes in men’s snowboard big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, on February 5, 2026
| Photo Credit:
AP

The opening ceremony is expected to draw a global audience of hundreds of millions and offers “a unique platform to convey positive messages, not divisive ones,” creative director Marco Balich promised.

‘No distractions’

Balich, who also directed the Turin Winter Games curtain-raiser in 2006, intends to pay tribute to Italian design and fashion, with a special nod to the designer Giorgio Armani, who passed away last year.

He said the ceremony “will tell the story of a young and modern Italy, looking towards the future, without indulging in the Dolce Vita”.

American singer Mariah Carey, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Chinese pianist Lang Lang are to perform.

Dozens of dignitaries will attend, including US Vice President JD Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Vance met International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry, who is overseeing her first Games since her election in March, at a dinner for heads of state on Thursday.

A view of curling stones during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Czechia, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on February 5, 2026
| Photo Credit:
AP

The United States hosts the next Olympics, the 2028 Summer Games, in Los Angeles.

Coventry has said she hopes “anything that is distracting from” the Milan-Cortina Olympics will be put aside for the February 6-22 extravaganza.

She was hinting at anger in Italy after it emerged that agents from the US immigration enforcement agency ICE will have an “advisory” role at the Games.

Rome has denied that the agents will have any operational role on its soil.

One of the most prominent US athletes, reigning Olympic snowboard champion Chloe Kim, took apparent aim at President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown as she arrived in Italy.

Kim said in an Instagram post she was proud to represent a country that is “strongest when it embraces diversity, dignity, and hope”.

“My parents left South Korea in search of a better future for their family. They left behind everything they knew so that my sisters and I could have the chance to one day live the American dream,” she added.

Speculation surrounds torchbearers

The Olympic flame reached Milan on Thursday (February 5) but organisers have tried to keep the identity of the final two torchbearers for the opening ceremony under wraps.

They will simultaneously light two cauldrons inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s knots, one suspended under Milan’s Arch of Peace, and the other in Piazza Dibona in Cortina.

On Wednesday, it was reported it would be Alberto Tomba in Milan and Deborah Compagnoni in Cortina, two of Italy’s most decorated alpine skiers.

A skier during the men’s snowboard big air qualification in Livigno, Italy on February 5, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

The sports programme has already begun with curling and women’s ice hockey, but not without hiccups.

The women’s ice hockey tournament experienced a setback when the match between Canada and Finland had to be postponed due to a virus that sidelined four Finnish players, who were suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea.

Other women’s games did go ahead, with the USA starting their bid to better their silver medal from the 2022 Beijing Olympics by beating the Czech Republic 5-1.

Meanwhile the biggest star of these Olympics, American skier Lindsey Vonn, will on Friday get a chance to test her injured knee in training for the women’s downhill in Cortina.

Vonn’s Olympic comeback at the age of 41 was almost derailed after she ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in a race last week, but she insists she will compete.

Published – February 06, 2026 08:46 am IST

Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra carries the Olympic flame on February 5, 2026. Picture: X/@Abhinav_Bindra