Constantini brings home curling gold – and her hopes for the future

When Italy’s Stefania Constantini arrived home to Malpensa Airport, Milan, her world had shifted. The curling mixed doubles gold medal winner was greeted by uniformed members of the sport section of the Italian police, TV cameras and microphones, and her boyfriend.

And that was when Constantini broke down in tears.

Domenico Dalla Santa, himself an ice hockey goaltender, gave Constantini a long embrace, a giant teddy bear and a red rose.

Della Santa was dressed in jacket and tie. Behind him, four friends in similarly smart attire held up a giant banner.

It was emblazoned with the scores of the 11 victories from 11 games recorded by Constantini and her partner Amos Mosaner. And it carried the giant slogan: “You gave us such a thrill.”

Constantini’s coach, Andrea Cardone, was also present. Cardone had to stay in Italy after testing positive for COVID-19 the day before the scheduled departure for Beijing.

“I didn’t expect all this support and it’s been fantastic," said Constantini.

"Just experiencing the Olympics is a dream. Seeing all of Italy supporting you is crazy.”

In spite of the “crazy thing we’ve done, this amazing goal we’ve achieved”, Constantini said she would remain “serious and stubborn, as my mum says”.

So much was evident as Constantini’s first thoughts turned to what Italy’s first ever medal in curling could mean for the sport.

“I think it’s an important thing for Italian curling. I hope our movement can keep growing and so keep to a minimum the training sessions with one or two people and have more and more coming along.”

Constantini recounted how she and Mosaner had revised their ambitions upwards.

“After finishing the round robins unbeaten – nine wins from nine – we really looked each other in the eyes and