WTI Magazine #81 2016 July 15
Author : Simone Callisto Manca Translation by:
After the good performance in London 2012 (eight place, 28 medals with 8 golds, 9 silvers and 11 bronzes) Italy arrives at the Olympic Games in Rio with the usual expectations: that of an average power of world sport, which aspires to a place among the very first. Among the medal hopes, the cover lies no doubt on Federica Pellegrini. The Divine, as some call her, is to step farewell.
After the Olympics, at age 28, a very advanced age for a swimmer, she will retire. But she wants to leave as a winner. These are her fourth Olympic Games and in Rio she will have the honor of being the flag bearer for the entire Italian team: an appropriate recognition to an extraordinary career, with a single drawback, London 2012, that in fact Federica wants to redeem from.
The second page goes to fencing, a traditional hotbed of medals for our sport. Here we are undoubtedly the strongest in the world, although in Rio - as a matter of rotation between the various disciplines of fencing, which are not always all present together at the Olympic Games – there won't be one of the disciplines we won most in the past: the women's foil team. Besides, these will be the first Olympic Games from a long time without Valentina Vezzali, who retired; but Elisa Di Francisca and Arianna Errigo will be there, together with the men's foil and saber fencers teams, including the timeless Aldo Montano, probably at his last Olympic Games, too.
Turning to the queen of sports, track and field, after difficult years it seems that Italy again has someone able to compete for a medal: the high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi, current world indoor champion. The 24-year from Marche, a much famous character also because of the extravagant superstition to race with half of his face shaved and half not, is the man on whom the Italian athletics bet more.
We'll hopefully and probably reach other medals from sports such as shooting, boxing, diving, sailing, and there will surely be some surprises: those that unfortunately, in a country heavily monopolized by football, will last only the space of a few days.
In team sports, our football team is absent because of the disappointing 2015 European Under-21 tournament. Our hopes are entrusted to water polo and men's and women's volleyball.
The Olympics are indeed also a test to find out the status of the health of the Italians sports system, that has been led for three and a half years by Giovanni Malagò: these will not only be his first Olympic Games, but also the last before the decision about the difficult challenge of the candidacy of Rome as city host of the 2024 Olympic Games.