FROM THE ENVIRONMENT TO TOKYO. T.between the boy who rolls away from the weight of his own anxieties and the one who kneels to stop emotions 12 minutes pass, a handful of time scattered between two golds that will change our heads. Gianmarco Tamberi, Olympic high jump champion and Marcell Jacobs, king of the Games in the 100 meters and in the embrace between these two lives lies our future. There is all the strength of people who believed in their dreams and above all knew how to protect them from those who wanted them different, from those who advised us to downsize, review, re-evaluate because, in short, we are Italian and we do not have the resources, the basis, the numbers to compete with more popular worlds. We don’t have the genes and DNA to go faster than everyone else. But no, 12 minutes to disprove every stereotype and travel at a stratospheric speed, 48.3 Km / h to be precise, beyond the profile designed to limit us, 12 minutes to overcome, at an altitude of 2 meters and 37 every binding thought. We can run and jump, we can win, even in one race after another like the Americans do, we can be first in the sprint that was Bolt’s: there are no foreclosures or prohibitions, there is no project that is too ambitious and now that we are been to the moon and we’re back on track, we just have to get going, no more excuses.
When Jacobs’s name lights up on the track, Tamberi is already wrapped in an Italian flag, he holds it tightly around his neck and lets out a scream: from Marcell and that he starts, he sets the European record and his heart beats over the finish line, unhinging every doubt. When he arrives on the other side, beyond the supposed logic, the first one he crosses is Tamberi and the two don’t just share the same exciting medal: they have an identical flight plan. Jacob goes over it before the start while he crosses his arms over his chest and then puts his hands to his ears and makes gestures as a steward, a code of engagement to separate the time of waiting from that of extreme concentration. It is as if she were indicating an airstrip, the place where she must arrive and Tamberi does the same, focuses her steps, projects her wishes an inch higher than the bar, wherever she is.
Those 12 minutes prepared them for a lifetime, they couldn’t improvise, they turned expectations upside down and now luckily it will be much harder to say it’s impossible. It was impossible to whiz past the pure sprint finish first and it was also impossible to recover from an injury that shatters your ankle. Except that there is no set destiny. To evaluate what we knew before those 12 minutes, Italy could not aspire to a final of 100 meters and Tamberi could even try, maybe come out with a podium, but always hesitant and suspicious, uncertain about the crystal tendons, not powerful and in absolute control as it was in reality. We had already climbed to the immortality zone in the high with Sara Simeoni, at the 1980 Games, we had never even attempted a 100-meter final, let alone the podium and even less gold. Generations will grow up more bold and confident of their means because they will know that we are not born with limited functions, that we are not necessarily those who make a living, who do not invest in research, who do not protect young people. We can decide to be like the tall boy who clings to his ambitions and defends them one centimeter after another, like the sprinter that no one would ever expect and certain feats are contagious: it is no coincidence that anyone who competes after comes out, at a minimum, with a national record, Sibilio, 22 years old, even qualifies for a final of 400 obstacles, 21 years after Mori.
We let ourselves be overwhelmed by those 12 high-intensity minutes that will remain in the history of sport and of the country. If people did not go to the streets it is because this is not a collective thrill, it is a personal shock. After the lightness of the horns for the successes of football, wonderful memories remain, splendid motivations, after this hangover with pride nothing will be the same as before.