Medals pile up for Italian women, but 'ice ceiling' persists in leadership
MILAN, Feb 22 : Italian sport is celebrating record‑breaking performances by its female athletes at the Winter Olympics, yet behind the medals is a far slower change in who wields influence in the nation's sporting future — still largely shaped by men's football.
While female athletes won seven of Italy's 10 gold medals at Milano Cortina, including one in the short track mixed team relay, women remain rare in the boardrooms, coaching staff and technical roles that determine policies and opportunities.
Some gaps reflect Italy's obsession with soccer, but experts say less visible factors also entrench the imbalance — from sports coverage dominated by male journalists to the limited scientific research on sportswomen's bodies.
"In Italy you have the main sports newspaper with 40 pages — 35 of them always talk about soccer, and the last five pages talk about every other sport," Arianna Fontana, the 35-year-old short track skater who this week became the most decorated Italian Olympian in history, told Reuters.
LEADERSHIP GAP IN FEDERATIONS
Despite attempts to widen opportunities for female sports reporters, the resignation of RAI's sports chief after a backlash over his opening ceremony commentary produced a familiar result: not one woman was floated as a possible replacement.
"Culturally in Italy some things need to change before we can talk about women's sports, women's rights in sport, and all these things," Fontana said.
Manuela Di Centa knows what it takes to break barriers. In 1994, the cross-country skier won five medals at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. More than a decade later, she became the first female vice president of CONI, Italy's Olympic committee.
As women account for 47 per cent of athletes at the Milano Cortina Games, up from 4.3 per cent at the 1924 Chamonix Games, Di Centa sees both progress and persistent barriers.
"We lack female leadership in the federations when it comes to coaches, athletic trainers, ski technicians," she told Reuters.
EXPERIENCE NEEDED FOR NEXT STEPS
Only weeks before the Milano Cortina Games opened, Italy elected just its second woman to lead one of its 50 national sports federations - lagging European peers. Across the country's 21 regional Olympic committees, only one is headed by a woman.
A study last year by the SG Plus Sport Advisor consultancy, commissioned by Sport Center Polisportiva, an Italian sports organisation certified for gender parity, found women made up 15.5 per cent of federation presidents in Britain and 11.6 per cent in Germany.
Only around 7 per cent of coaches in the Italian national teams across all sports are women, the same study showed.
According to Giovanni Malagò, chairman of the Milano Cortina 2026 organising committee and former head of CONI, "if the members of a sports organisation decide a man represents them better, there is little anyone can do about it".
"But with more women willing to stand for senior roles, I'm convinced we will soon see many more of them in positions of responsibility," he added.
Elizabeth Spina, who oversees AC Milan's women's sides, said more women needed to join coaching set-ups — even in men's sports — to gain experience necessary to eventually become head coaches.
"Skills come from being an athlete, from training and from experience — but too often that experience is passed from man to man," she said.
One female snowboarder who asked not to be named, described the paradox: her sport treats men and women equally in training, access, and prize money — yet technical staff remains overwhelmingly male.
"There are very few coaches that are women ... there is a real glass ceiling — or should I say, an ice ceiling." Her own sister, a qualified coach, left Italy for Switzerland.
RESEARCH INTO HORMONAL FLUCTUATION
Beyond representation, Italian sports institutions are only beginning to grapple with fundamental physiological differences.
For a century, training protocols were calibrated exclusively on male bodies, said Elena Cuccia, a research official with the Italian weightlifting federation.
"We've been applying female software to male hardware," she said, noting that hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle — particularly oestrogen dominance — can increase ligament laxity and heighten the risk of ACL injuries.
"We need coaches who plan with hormonal cycles, injuries and contraceptives in mind."
One female figure skater said she experienced this firsthand: when she asked coaches how contraceptives might affect her performance, they had no answers. The research was scarce.
EDUCATION AND MATERNITY SYSTEMS
Italy's traditional education system poses another obstacle.
Diana Bianchedi, vice president of CONI and a former Olympic fencing champion, had to quit sports at 16 because of school.
"Our kids should never face that choice again," she said.
A new government decree now permits schools to adjust exam schedules and attendance rules for student-athletes, addressing a critical juncture: age 14, when Italian girls drop out of sport at six times the rate of boys.
Speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida's gold-medal comeback illustrates what is possible when institutions adapt.
After giving birth in 2023, she returned to training just four months later, but only because Italy's ice sports federation created a tailored support package covering travel for family, childcare during the 250 days a year she spends abroad and freezing her world rankings during maternity leave.
"Without their help, this gold would never have come," she told Reuters.
The support scheme emerged from a CONI study of 55 athletes who became mothers after Sydney 2000 and returned to world-class competition — research that showed motherhood need not end elite careers if systems adapt.
But Lollobrigida's "Progetto Mamma" remains an exception.
Only two Italian sports federations recognise women's professional status, leaving many mothers without maternity coverage.
MARKETABILITY COULD BE KEY
IOC President Kirsty Coventry's presence at these Games — the first woman to lead the Olympic movement — signals global momentum. Inside the Milano Cortina organizing committee, women hold half of all staff positions and volunteer roles.
Former CONI official Di Centa also argued sports sponsorship now prioritises marketability over gender, with female athletes such as Fontana, Lollobrigida and alpine skier Federica Brignone likely to secure strong sponsorship deals based on compelling narratives of perseverance or motherhood.
For Brignone — who returned from a serious crash to win two Olympic golds within 10 months — the ultimate measure is performance, and she believes true parity between genders already exists where it matters most: on the mountain.
(Additional reporting by Sara Rossi, Giulia Segreti, Elvira Pollina and Giancarlo Navach; Editing by Alison Williams)
