Italy’s sports sector occupies fifth place in the Olympic competitiveness index, a number much more important than medals, because these cannot measure the work of the federations: “If we manage to achieve these results – said the president of CONI, Giovanni Malagò – it is thanks to the system, the sports schools within the associations with the technicians we train and the Olympic preparation that works excellently hand in hand with the sports organizations”, Olympic preparation that has a multifunctional center in Rome after years of approximation.

Performance analysis for sports

Some numbers. In swimming we went from 72 medals in Rome 2022 to 20 in Belgrade 2024, but the team has some diamonds like Gregorio Paltrinieri and Simona Quadarella, Thomas Ceccon and Nicolò Martinenghi, up to Benedetta Pilato. Fencing with 130 Olympic medals is the most titled Italian five-ring sport and at the World Championships in Milan last year we won 10 medals, with 4 golds, ahead of Hungary and Japan who ranked second and third respectively. In Tokyo the medals were 40, 10 for gold and silver, 20 for bronze.

Challenges and opportunities towards Paris 2024

The projection on Paris ‘announces’ 47-50, but as we know well in sport, especially Olympic, it is not enough to be strong and arrive in shape for the appointment of the Games, you also need that pinch of luck and for the planets to be aligned to achieve important results, considering that there are also opponents and that this time, especially in athletics, they will not snub us. And yet looking around, school, understood as compulsory school, and sport are still two separate worlds and sports facilities are a unicorn. Just look around, in fact, in every city to discover that there is a hunger for gyms, often owned by schools but rented to sports clubs in the afternoon, not to mention the issue of sports work and a law that has remained on the obstacle, without taking its heart further.

Structural problems in Italian sport

“Italian sport is individual, military and based on chance”, Antonella Bellutti summarized in one of her many articles of these days, two Olympic golds in two different specialties; one who knows that world like the back of her hand. And it seems to see again the mistakes made with football, where victories cover the flaws without building anything in perspective. While Marco Mezzaroma, president of Sport e Salute, thinks of reviving Italian football by starting from the facilities and the base, with a national mapping and a master plan.

Prospects for Italian Athletics

Looking ahead to the Paris Games, which begin in less than a week, Italian athletics arrives with great ambitions and a team that can hardly be the result of chance, where Stefano Mei has been sowing seeds for years, together with Antonio La Torre, technical director of the national athletics team. Casa Italia in Paris 2024, beyond the glitter, is a real cross-section of the country, not only for the melting pot represented by the athletes, but also for the difficulties of doing high-level sports outside the military system. It is difficult to make predictions there where you can’t make any mistakes until the final, hoping not to get injured and knowing that you might not have a second Olympic chance. And here lies the whole difference with football, perhaps avoiding wars between the poor, even if the media claims are sacrosanct. So, let’s enjoy these athletes who carry the blue flag every day and, only, every four years, damn their souls to make it fly on the Olympic podium.