Anthony J. Lobello Jr. (born August 15, 1984, in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...

) is a retired

short track speed skater Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a length of . The rink itself is long by wide, which is the same size as a ...

, inline speed skater, and coach who competed for the

United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics The United States sent 204 athletes to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Chris Witty, a four-time Olympian, who competed in both Summer and Winter games, and won a gold medal in speed skating at the 2002 Games, served as the flag bearer at ...

and for Italy at the 2014 Winter Olympics. He also competed in the US team's

2010 Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

qualifying event, held in

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...

in September 2009, although he was not selected for the team after being hampered by illness during the trials. Lobello was educated at Holy Comforter Episcopal School and

Maclay School Maclay School is an independent, non-sectarian college-preparatory school in Tallahassee, Florida. History In the late 1960s, a group of white parents raised funds to create a segregation academy in response to the federally mandated racial integr ...

: he was a keen athlete, competing in

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

and playing

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

as well as becoming an accomplished

inline skater Inline skates are a type of roller skates, roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike quad skates, which have two front and two rear wheels, inline skates typically have two to five wheels arranged in a single line. Some, especially those for ...

. In 2003 he started attending Northern Michigan University on a sports scholarship, with the aim of making the transition from roller to ice skating with the aim of competing at the Winter Olympics. With only three years of speed skating experience prior to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, Lobello surprised the field and made the team: he placed 23rd in the 500 meters at the Games. He was the highest ranking American (7th) in the 500-meter event for the 2008–2009 World Cup season, ahead of Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno. Lobello was named Colorado's Red-Hot Bachelor by ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'' magazine in 2005. Lobello was an undergraduate student at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, majoring in communications. He began dating Italian skater

Arianna Fontana Arianna Fontana OMRI (born 14 April 1990) is an Italian short track speed skater, who has won eleven Olympic medals among these two gold medals in the 500m short track, one at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the second one at the 20 ...

in 2012: the couple were engaged the following year and married in May 2014 in

Colico Colico ( Comasque: or ; la, Colicum) is a city in the province of Lecco, Lombardy, Italy. It is situated on the northern arm of Lake Como, where the river Adda enters the lake. Colico is the most important city in the northern part of Lake Co ...

. The couple split their time between homes in

Valtellina Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; rm, Vuclina (); lmo, Valtelina or ; german: Veltlin; it, Valtellina) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Toda ...

Courmayeur Courmayeur (; Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''comune'' in northern Italy, in the autonomous region of Aosta Valley. History The toponym ''Courmayeur'' has been mentioned as ''Curia majori'' (1233–1381), ''Corte Maggiore'' (1620), ''Cormoyeu'' (164 ...

and Lobello's hometown of Tallahassee. After a troubled relationship with US Speedskating, Lobello elected to switch nationality to compete for Italy in 2012, being eligible through his Italian paternal grandfather. His appearance at the 2014 Games made him the first American sportsperson to compete for a second nation at a Winter Games having previously competed for the US national team (

Rena Inoue is a Japanese-born American retired pair skater. With partner John Baldwin, she is the 2004 and 2006 U.S. National Champion. Inoue previously competed for Japan as both a single skater and pair skater. Inoue and Baldwin are the first skaters t ...

Clay Ives James "Clay" Ives (born September 5, 1972) is a Canadian-born American luger who competed from the early 1990s until his 2002 retirement. Competing in three Winter Olympics (the first two with Canada, the last with the United States), he won the ...

and

Bengt Walden Bengt Otto Walden (born April 16, 1973 in Nacka) is a retired Swedish-born, American luger who has competed since 1985, internationally since 1988, when he joined the Swedish national team. He married American luger Ashley Hayden in 2006, and ...

all competed for other nations at the Winter Olympics before representing the US). Following the 2014 Winter Olympics, Lobello began coaching Fontana after his retirement from competition, helping her to a gold medal in the

500 meters The 500 metres is a rarely run middle-distance running event in track and field competitions. All-time top 25 *i = indoor performance *OT = oversized track (exceeding 200m in circumference) *A = affected by altitude *h = hand timing Men *C ...

at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lobello, Anthony Jr. 1984 births Living people American male short track speed skaters Olympic short track speed skaters for the United States Olympic short track speed skaters for Italy Italian male short track speed skaters Short track speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Short track speed skaters at the 2014 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Tallahassee, Florida University of Utah people American sports coaches Speed skating coaches Italian sports coaches Maclay School alumni