The time that matters: stories of athletes on the way to Milano Cortina 2026

Interview with Gloria Ioriatti, short-track speed skater

Gloria Ioratti is a child of artists: her parents were in fact skaters of international renown. Her father, Ermanno Ioriatti, represented Italy in speed skating at four consecutive Winter Olympics, from Nagano in 1998 to Vancouver in 2010; while her mother, Elisabetta Pizio, competed at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.

In a race that is decided in just a few seconds, what do you feel in the moments before and at the start? Do you feel as if time is running faster or slower?

It’s a special feeling because, when you’re going onto the track, it feels as if time never passes. You think about the race, about tactics. Short track is not just a race against time, but above all against your opponent. Time is vital, but in a relative sense: to get through each round you have to finish first or second in your heat. The thoughts accumulating in this endless time are about your form, that of your opponents, and a thousand other details. It’s dilated time, which stops at the moment you enter the track and the gun goes off. Thirteen and a half laps and everything is decided: time seems to fly by in an instant, you don’t realise that it is passing as you are too focused on overtaking your opponent and frantically analysing your performance and that of the others. So I could say it’s a mixed feeling: before the start it’s endless, while you’re racing it’s over in a flash.

So, while you are competing, your thoughts are purely on the race…

That’s right, you only think about what you have to do, the tactics you have decided on with your coach, and giving your best.

You spend months training for a race that lasts for just a few seconds: what value do you give to all this work once you get on the track?

To begin with, I skate because I like doing it, and now this is my work. I don’t find having to train every day a burden, because it’s what I have chosen and what I love to do: it’s my dream. I have never participated in the Olympics so I don’t have that kind of experience, although over the years I have realised that it won’t all end with just one event: if things go wrong, there will always be other opportunities to make up for it and get back in the game. I will try to do well and give my best at the Olympics: I think the most important will be to leave the track with the knowledge that I have given everything. Short track is so unpredictable that you have to be able to accept falling, whether it’s you or others who might affect you. It is an individual sport but, at the same time, it involves a group in a synchronous contest. It is a contact sport, with frequent falls; that’s why it is not only a race against time, but above all against your opponent.

At what moment in your career did it feel that time was on your side?

Sometimes time can play a crucial role in a lap, perhaps by a truly infinitesimal margin. One occasion when time really made a difference was at the European Championships two years ago at Gdansk in Poland. I was coming up to the finish line with one of my teammates and I came second by a few hundredths of a second. At the time I felt bad about it, but then it was great to celebrate together: we were on the same team and not finishing first in no way detracted from the importance of the time I had in any case achieved.

The Olympics are every athlete’s dream: they also place the host country firmly in the spotlight. What does it mean to you to pursue a sporting adventure so closely linked to Trentino, a region that has made sport and nature its calling card?

There is no doubt that taking part in the Olympics has been my life’s dream since I was a child, and representing Italy is a source of great pride for me. If I compete, sadly it will not be in Trentino but in Milan. But for Trentino it will be an extraordinary opportunity to show off its beauty and its sports culture, because if there is any region where sport is a 360-degree experience, it’s Trentino. We did very well at this year’s World Championships and all Trentino applauded us, once again showing its strong sense of community and belonging. Such celebrations give us the necessary strength to continue our mission with even more energy. And they also make me aware that I should do my best not just for myself or for my country, but also for the area where I grew up and developed as an athlete, since my original team was that of the skating club at Pinè.