Matilde Arosio, Alice Delfino and Ludovica Rimondi won the event with a line-up that had never taken this title together before.
A defence written with unfamiliar hands
The final came against France's Ornella Faria and Mayrin Burasovitch, with Arosio paired alongside Rimondi for the decisive race. Italy had already cleared Chile in the quarter-finals — where Rimondi and Delfino did the work — and then beat French duo Celeste Grenon-Granger and Noelie Gontier in the semi-finals. Each round asked a different combination, and each time the answer held.
The course itself tilted the challenge. National team head coach Andrea Ronco described a layout that was unusually long and split into two distinct halves. A fast, descent-heavy opening rewarded raw speed, while a more rhythmic, technical closing stretch demanded clean control and the nerve to settle things on the final straight.
Two world titles, one new trio
The title defence carries an asterisk of renewal. In 2024, on home ground in Rome, Italy's women's team also claimed gold — but this Asunción trio had not shared that moment. Arosio, the reigning individual world champion from 2024, led two teammates she had never won this specific event with before.
Rimondi's rise sharpens the storyline. She won the junior women's skate cross world title in Rome on her very first national-team call-up. Delfino completed the trio, racing in the quarter-finals and semi-final before the final pairing was set.
"This gold is the first won by Italy at the World Skate Games ASU26 and it has a special value for us," Ronco told reporters. "The heats and the qualifications were very demanding — because of the weather, the number of participants and the level of the opponents — but the Azzurri never gave up."
The medal arrived on a day when Italian men took bronze in the same discipline. Over 8,000 athletes from 91 nations are gathered in Asunción through 18 October.
