WTI Magazine #75 2016 January 18
Author : Simone Callisto Manca Translation by:
Like every leap year, 2016 will present at least two events not to miss for the Italian sport: the Olympic Games in Rio and the European Soccer Championships in France, two events in which our teams do not start as favored but may result as interesting outsider. Those that will be held in Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21 will be the Olympic Games number 31: it will be the second largest sporting event that takes place in Brazil in just two years, after the Soccer World Cup in 2014.
For us, the most important protagonist is undoubtedly Federica Pellegrini, the Divine. The greatest Italian swimmer of all times has won everything, and arrives to Rio with the degree of captain of the entire Italian team: it is very likely that she will be our flag bearer in the opening ceremony. She must redeem the failure of London 2012, when she failed, together with the entire swimming team. After London, some said that she was finished: but she proved them wrong by winning the silver medal in the World Championship in Barcelona 2013 and with two other second places in Kazan 2015. After Rio, Federica will say goodbye to the competitions at age 28, an already remarkable age for a swimmer that exploded in Athens in 2004, a lifetime ago: it would be a wonderful end of career to greet everyone with an Olympic podium, twelve years after the first medal.
The other frontman of Italian swimming will be Gregorio Paltrinieri. Only 22 years old, the swimmer from Carpi can win the Olympic gold, after winning the first place in Kazan 2015. In the 1,500m freestyle he will start as favorite.
Italians also hope for medals in another sport that traditionally favors us, fencing. There won't be the most winning Italian fencer of all times, Valentina Vezzali, who failed to qualify and is now nearing retirement: but a new breed of champions is already winning. Arianna Errigo, Elisa Francisca and Rossella Fiamingo will probably give us the reason to celebrate.
Shooting, cycling, boxing are other sports where Italy could win medals: and then, in every Olympic Games there's an almost unknown Italian athlete who wins a gold medal and becomes a new idol for those like us who are not experts and did not know him or her before.
The European Championship, to be held in France from June 10 to July 10, will be an opportunity to evaluate the two years of work by Antonio Conte, the Italian coach arrived at the blue bench in the wake of three years of victories with Juventus. The blues do not start favorites: before them there are at least four teams, from the French hosts to the emerging Belgium, through the world champions from Germany to the Spanish who won the last European tournament four years ago. Italy does not have the biggest stars: Gianluigi Buffon, our leader, and last "survivor" of the 2006 Berlin World Championship victory, is now 38. Our team has good players but no authentic world stars: however, our national team hardly misses two opportunities in a row, and after the unfortunate elimination in the first round of Brazil 2014 the whole environment wants to redeem itself.
2016 will also be a big year in motor sports. In Formula One, Sebastian Vettel could finally bring Ferrari back to compete for the Championship, after two years of domination by Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. But it will also be very interesting to follow the MotoGP, after the scorching final of the last season: the feud between Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Márquez could be the leit motif of the year. For us Italians it will be especially interesting to see if and how the Doctor, Valentino Rossi, will bounce back from the disappointment of 2015 and if he can still be competitive at 36 and after all his victories. Will he still be hungry?
Federica Pellegrini, Gianluigi Buffon, Valentino Rossi: a new year, three "old" champions. Waiting for the new ones to come and win.