Felice Mariani in action at the 1976 Montreal Games – from:martialnet.it
Article by Giovanni Manenti
Joined the Olympic program starting from the 1964 Tokyo edition to satisfy the express request of the organizing country, Judo was excluded four years later in Mexico City, only to be the protagonist of the following ones Munich Games 1972 up to the present day, expanding both the number of Categories, from the initial four to the current seven, and female participationguaranteed by the 1992 Barcelona Olympics…
Discipline traditionally born and raised in the Land of the Rising SunJudo saw the almost absolute domination of Japanese specialists up until the end of the 1970s, both in Olympic and world terms, without prejudice the deadly Dutch couple made up of Anton Geesink and Wim Ruska, capable of inflicting “Masters” two sensational defeats in the Open Category (i.e. without weight limit) at both the Tokyo 1964 and Munich 1972 Games, with the second Gold also among the Heavyweights, as well as having won two world titles each.
With the progressive globalization of this Discipline too, while remaining Japan largely leads the overall Olympic medal table with 48 Golds compared to only 16 for FranceItaly has also gradually managed to carve out its own space, so much so currently positioned in ninth position in this ranking with a haul of 17 laurelsthe result of 4 golds, as many silvers and 9 bronzes…
And, as often happens in disciplines that are not widely practiced in a country, there is always an athlete to play the role of “pioneer” – or a trailblazer, if we want, given the relatively recent era – indicating the way to future generations, and this is the case of the protagonist of our story today, even though the first representative of the Bel Paese to have climbed to the top step of the Podium it was in a large international event Nicola Tempesta, European Champion in the Rotterdam 1957 and Milan 1961 exhibitions.
Felice Mariani, vice versa, born on 8 July 1954 in Rome, boasts the not inconsiderable privilege of being the first Italian medalist at both the World Championships and the Olympicsstarting this journey when, just 21 years old, he presented himself at the World Championships which took place in Vienna from 23 to 26 October 1975, registered in the lightweight category up to 63 kilos, of which he has been Italian Champion since 1973 having won the European Junior Championships the previous year in Tel Aviv…
The combination is certainly not the most favorable for the Roman, who in the first round he faces the Japanese and reigning champion Yoshiharu Minami, by whom he is defeated as predictedto then get the better of the Canadian Daniel Hardy, the Frenchman Yves Delvingt, the West German Alexander Leibkind and then, in the match that awards the bronze, overcoming the American Kennerh Okadaof clear Japanese origins.
First Italian world championship medal in history, this result is ideal so that Mariani can hope to repeat himself the following year on the occasion of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, another event that had until then been taboo for the blue coloursgiven that in the previous two editions the 10 titles up for grabs went to Japan 6 times, 3 to the Netherlands as mentioned above and once to the Soviet Union…
Moreover, from the sun 9 Nations medaled in 1964 in Tokyo – let us remember in this regard that Judo, like Boxing, also provides for the awarding of two bronze medals – eight years later in Munich it already went to 11 which became 13 at the Montreal Games.
So here is Mariani preparing for his Olympic debut in Lightweight competition which took place on 30 July 1976 on the platforms of the “Olympic Velodrome” of the Canadian Metropoliswhere he is placed in paired Group A in the first match against the Soviet Oleg Zurabiani, getting the better of o-uchi-gari, same result achieved against the British Connie Alexander …
Opposed to the Frenchman Delvingt, whom he defeated the year before in Vienna, Mariani beat him by seoi-nage, only to suffer the same fate against the South Korean Jang Eun-Gyeong in the match that would have guaranteed him access to the Final for the Gold Medal, for which he qualified from Group B the Cuban Hector Rodriguez, who prevails over the Asian, giving his country the first Gold Medal in this discipline.
For the blue, vice versa, it remains the chance for bronze through the repechages, made the most of with the victory before the limit for tate-shiho-gatame over the Austrian Erich Pointner for what, in our small way, is also the first Olympic medal of a blue judoka…
A result that did not take long to bear good fruit for Mariani, who graduated European Champion for three consecutive editionshaving the upper hand in Final over the Hungarian Ferenc Szabo in 1978 in Helsinki, over the West German Helmut Grobelin the following year in Brussels and then over the Austrian Josef Reiter in the Review which took place from 15 to 18 May 1980 a Vienna.
Also still bronze at the 1979 World Championships in Paris after being defeated in the semi-final by the South Korean Jong Kao-Woon, then overcome in the Final for the title by the home athlete Thierry ReyMariani would have liked to play his chances at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but due to his membership in the Fiamme Gialle he was forced to renounce it due to the Italian Government’s Pilate-like decision to prevent athletes belonging to the various Military Corps from participating in the Games, in deference to the absurd boycott declared by US President Jimmy Carter…
With its category downgraded to extra light up to 50 kilos, for example Rey himself prevailed, beating the Cuban José Rodriguez in the Final, while the blue honor is held high by the feat of Ezio Gamba, who prevailed in the Lightweight Category (up to 71kg in weight) by getting the better of the British Neil Adams in the final actso as to become the first Italian capable of climbing to the top step of an Olympic Podium, after having won silver the previous year at the World Championships in Paris.
The bitterness for the lack of Olympic participation causes Mariani to continue the activity also in the following four years, which still sees him capable of going on the podium both at the Maastricht 1981 World Championships, where he reached the semi-final only to be defeated by the Japanese Yasuhiko Moriwaki and then overtook the German Peter Jupke for the match that was worth the bronzewhile three years later to At the European Championships in Liège, the Russian Khazret Tletseri is preventing him from collecting a handful of continental titleswho prevails in the Final…
The final act of the competitive activity of the now 30-year-old Roman judoka takes place on 4 August 1984 on the platforms of the “California State Uni9versity” on the occasion of the Los Angeles Olympics, which see Mariani overtake the Moroccan Abdel Hamin Slimani before seeing each other blocking the path of the Japanese Shinji Hosokawa, then Gold by overcoming the South Korean Kim Jae-yup in the Final for ippon after just 1’09” …
For the blue there would still be the opportunity to get a second bronze through the repechages, but later having defeated the Brazilian Luiz Shinohara, he suffers a similar fate against the British Neil Eckersley, who wins by ippon after 2’09”.
Four European medals (three gold and one silver), three world bronze medals and one Olympic bronzemay be enough to summarize the value of Felice Mariani’s career, to whom fate nevertheless offers the opportunity, which subsequently became Technical Commissioner of the National Judo team, to lead Giulia Quintavalle to the “Gloria Olympic” in the Lightweight Category at the Beijing Games 2008 …
And, even in this case, it is a “first time”, regarding the top step of the podium, theyEmanuela Pierantozzi also previously medaled, silver in the Middle Weights in the inaugural edition of Barcelona 1992…
So as to confirm the old adage that: “you never forget the first time…” …