&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Game over! Winter Olympic dream turns into arrest drama for wanted Slovak fan in Italy")
Going to watch his country’s ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics in Italy turned out to be a bad decision for a Slovak man, when he was arrested by the Italian authorities after being on the run for 16 years. The 44-year-old returned to the country to watch his national hockey team despite being on the wanted list, the local Carabinieri police force said in a statement.
According to the police, he had an arrest warrant issued for a series of shop thefts in 2010. The authorities managed to track him down after he checked into a guest house in outskirts of Milan.
The man was apprehended after receiving a tip from hotel staff, the Carabinieri police said. He was arrested and taken to the central San Vittore prison to serve an 11 months and seven days sentence, the Carabinieri said.
Much to his disappointment, the man could not watch the game in which Slovakia’s opening ice hockey game at Milan's Santagiulia Arena. Slovakia’s men’s hockey team debuted at the Milano Cortina Games on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Finland.
The case mirrors the plot of “The Bandit and the Champion”, a famous Italian ballad inspired by early 20th-century outlaw Sante Pollastri, in which a criminal is captured following a years-long manhunt when he returned to watch a childhood friend at a cycling event.
The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Winter Olympic Games and commonly known as Milano Cortina 2026, kicked off on February 6 and will conclude on February 22. The international multi-sport event is being held across several locations in Lombardy and Northeast Italy.
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