updated 11:47 a.m. ET Feb. 22, 2006

TURIN, Italy - For years, Enrico Fabris prepared for his Olympic moment in anonymity.

In a country where fans focus on soccer, cycling and little else, any mention of Fabris used to be buried in the deepest of inside pages of Italy’s sports papers.

On Wednesday, though, one day after his win in the 1,500 meters, the lanky speedskater held the front of the venerated Gazzetta dello Sport under the headline “Fabris, the man of the Games.”

Fabris took up pages 2, 3 and 5 also — and the only reason he didn’t make page 4 was because it was taken up with a full-page ad.

With two gold medals and a bronze within a magical 10 days at the Turin Games, the 24-year-old policeman has become the symbol of Italian success at the nation’s first Olympics in 46 years.

He spent Wednesday morning signing autographs in the athlete’s village. In the hours that followed Tuesday’s win in the 1,500, he even fielded an offer of about $1.2 million to appear on an Italian reality television show.

“That is not my target,” he said. “It was an Olympic medal.”

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Few expected him to win one in the 1,500. Even Chad Hedrick, who took bronze in the race, admitted overlooking Fabris in favor of his American rival Shani Davis — despite the Italian’s bronze in the 5,000 and gold in the team pursuit.

“To be honest, I think I was pushing a little harder to beat Shani,” Hedrick said. “We were focused on each other. We were not focused on Enrico.”

But the chief organizer of the Turin Games, Valentino Castellani, was in attendance, sensing Italian magic.

With clenched teeth and determination creasing his brow, Fabris rode his trademark finishing kick, was lifted by a delirious crowd, and surged over the last 500 meters.

“I started quite slow and the other skaters after me started very fast. You have to keep some strength for the final lap. So I did it,” Fabris said. “I showed I had trained a lot.”

Neither Davis nor Hedrick, who both raced after Fabris, could match his winning time of 1 minute, 45.97 seconds.

Fabris held his head in disbelief when Davis’ time flashed on the screen and it was clear he had won the gold. Thousands of fans roared with delight and the Italian tricolor waved from all corners.

“En-ri-co!” mixed freely with “I-tal-ia!” as the home crowd cheered its new hero.

Within minutes, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was on the phone.

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“He told me that I am writing the history of the sport and that the best is still to come,” Fabris said.

In winning the 1,500, Fabris joins elite Italian athletic company; he is his nation’s first Olympic double gold medalist since skier Alberto Tomba won twice at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.

And there’s still Friday’s 10,000 meters to go, in the closing race of the games for the men. Fabris is fifth in this season’s World Cup standings at that distance.

“The 10,000 is a long and hard distance and you have to be perfect in your head,” he said. “I can still think about the podium.”

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