In Italy, Fabris Now Is Cooler Than Gelato

He is fast becoming Italy’s new sports hero, yet a few weeks ago he was virtually unknown.

As the Winter Games come to a close, Enrico Fabris has emerged as the host nation’s top medal-winner, accounting for half of Italy’s gold intake, and the most successful skater in the 2006 Olympics. Fabris earned two gold and a bronze in the unlikely (for Italy) discipline of speedskating.

Fans love him. Women post kisses on his website. The prime minister phones with congratulations, and the Italian press has anointed him the king of the Games.

The lanky Fabris, a 24-year-old policeman, remains relatively self-effacing and openly appreciative of his new-found fame, further sealed Saturday when Italy’s top skier and last hope for a medal, Giorgio Rocca, crashed on his first run down the slalom course.

“The more time passes, the more I realize how comfortable I feel with these medals,” Fabris told reporters. “They make me feel good, not anxious or fearful. I hung them up in my bedroom, so, once in a while, I can give a look to them and realize that I’m not dreaming.”

A four-time national champion in speedskating, Fabris nevertheless toiled in relative obscurity. Italy is not a country that has a tradition in, nor many practitioners of, skating. Fabris’ performance marked the first time Italy had ever won an Olympic medal in the sport. Before these Games, he has said, the only time a reporter would ever approach him was in Holland, a country obsessed with speedskating. Italians couldn’t care less.

But no more. His surprise performance has salvaged what might have been an especially lackluster, and embarrassing, show by the host country.

Italians figured they might do OK in skiing, since it is a sport that the country knows and enjoys. And for a while, the men’s curling team was making a respectable showing and attracting big crowds -- until it fell in the rankings.

But speedskating? No one banked on that.

“An Italy that doesn’t know how to ski anymore! Men and women [skiers] united in disaster!” bemoaned the daily newspaper La Repubblica, which went on to declare Fabris “possibly the nation’s salvation.”

“Fabris is the one who did it,” said fan Fabio Messina, who runs a hotel. “And it was most unexpected.”

Fabris’ last appearance on ice was in Friday’s 10,000-meter race at the Oval Lingotto. As is his trademark, he came from behind to power past Johan Rojler of Sweden. But his time was not good enough for a medal and he finished eighth. (Gold went to Bob de Jong of the Netherlands, and Chad Hedrick of the United States took silver.)

Still, you wouldn’t know it from the way he worked the crowd. For a long time after the grueling race was over, Fabris continued to skate around the track saluting small but enthusiastic knots of Italian fans. He spent the longest time with one group of men and women who dressed in T-shirts in the red, green and white of the Italian flag and waved banners declaring “Enrico! Enrico!” He posed for photographs and received the hugs and kisses of the adoring Italians.

Fabris, who just declined a lucrative appearance on a local reality TV show, says his success is the product of years of steadfast (if little-noticed) sacrifice, of skating since he was 6 years old, with his uncle, a priest, cheering him on, and living, to this day, with his parents in northeastern Italy.

Fabris won gold in the team pursuit and bronze in the 5,000 meters, but it was probably his gold in the 1,500 that catapulted him definitively to fame. He skated to an upset victory in that race over famously feuding Americans Shani Davis and Hedrick.

During the news conference that followed, Fabris was confronted by excited Italian journalists who found it difficult to follow the International Olympic Committee rules requiring the first round of questions be made in English. They repeatedly asked Fabris questions in Italian, only to be repeatedly scolded by an Olympic official.

Finally, exasperated, the Olympic official sought to shut the Italian reporters down. “When are you going to learn English?” she demanded.

Fabris turned to her and retorted: “When are you going to learn Italian?”

For locals watching their new hero, the Italian word that came to mind at that moment: Bravo!