Finally also the pole vault champion Great Successor has won her battle: when she reaches the age of majority, she has the chance to obtain the Italian citizenship. So after the boxing champion nurse Pamela Malvina Noutcho Sawathe list of sports that have become blue is getting longer.
“I am of age and Italian”: the crowning of the athlete’s dream
Now that he has completed the 18 years will celebrate, not only for his birthday, but also because he will finally be able to start the procedures for obtaining Italian citizenship. The champion, after setting record after record, such as the ten Italian titles, and after obtaining thehonor delivered by President Mattarella of Standard bearer of the Republicwill crown his dream: to become aItalian athlete. “I’ve thought about it a lot, and when I wake up it will be my first thought. I’m of age and Italian ”. Great after the good news cannot hold back the emotion: “Who knows how many procedures I will have to carry out in the Prefecture. Meanwhile, I went ahead in the summer to be as ready as possible. We hope to obtain citizenship in the short term. We are almost at the finish line“, He declared in an interview with the press.
The long path to recognition
“My origins are Nigerian. My mother and father were born in Nigeria, but my mother 25 years ago came to Italian and therefore I was born here ”, declared the athlete last year. The approach to athletics took place thanks to the school when his talent was noticed by Luciano Gemello which leads her to enter the Cus Turin. The results are not long in coming and they are surprising. In August 2019 she jumps 3.80 meters and beats the cadet category record and here comes the first problem: not having Italian citizenship, it cannot be considered the new Italian category record. To remedy this situation the council of the Italian Federation of Athletics (Fidal), updating its regulations and thus also allowing foreign athletes but resident in Italy, registered for an Italian club and attending Italian schools, to have their performance recognized on a par with other athletes in our country.
Unfortunately, this obstacle remains for international competition. “I made the minimum result for the European championships and also for the world championships, but unfortunately I was unable to go there because I do not have Italian citizenship. I can’t help either Europeansné i world cup, none other than the Italian championships ”, said the young woman. Her coach, who became a second father for her, expressed all anger at the incomprehensible situation in 2021: “Today she is recognized by Iaaf (the international athletics federation) as an Italian athlete but Italy does not recognize her as Italian and therefore the great problem is that she cannot compete representing her country, that of birth, the one in which she lived, her real country. She cannot wear the shirt of the Italian national team. So she is relegated to competing here ”.