High jump, bronze in Vallortigara The podium reached the age of 30

Athletics, the first medal for Italy at the Eugene World Cup

history

SENT TO EUGENE

The podium seen from the top of the 30 years is a strange planet. Elena Vallortigara has dreamed of it for a whole career, since she was a young girl, and she climbed on it when time was almost up, so she speaks of thousandths even though she won a bronze in the high jump: “I was ready to fight, I didn’t want to give up a thousandth of a second before my race was over ». After a lifetime of making mistakes, there is no more room for error.

It is not only Italy’s first medal at the Eugene World Cup and it is not even the notch that everyone was waiting for in order not to feel too lost after the Olympics of abundance. Finding zero would be painful and this result moves the ranking and pride too, restarts a system. But the 2 meters jumped by this woman who had to learn to wait, go well beyond competition, they tell the art of success, the one who in everyday life does not have the deadlines dictated by sport. Vallortigara won as a young girl, in junior competitions, bronze already at the Under category World Championships, then ten years of emptiness: «I have put together a large amount of negative experience, fundamental. The scars always heal if you analyze what happened. The scars are useful ».

Said so it seems only expectation and a spirit of sacrifice, a Zen approach to athletics that does not exactly respond to the nature of the blue. She surpassed 2 meters, actually 2.02, four years ago and even then she was asked why at that moment, which she seemed ideal. Even there, her turning point was fixed to that measure. As if at some point there was a guarantee of progressing. It doesn’t work like that and the story of Vallortigara tells that of anyone: the road that separates a person from his desires, from ambitions. For very few it is a clear path, «I would have enjoyed everything much earlier, but you can see that my appointment with destiny was now». In the US, where, the films teach, every dream is possible and where Vallortigara who reads Manzini’s detective stories, watches “Friends” over and over and imagines eating ice cream that he can only consume when he’s not competing, realizes his own in an evening in which nothing seems prohibitive to her. She is third behind the Australian Patterson, who draws the wild card at 2.02 and the Ukrainian Mahuchikh who shows off all her talent without finding the winning flash.

Elena competes for herself, for better or for worse: she never makes a mistake until she no longer has any, the energy drops, not the determination: “I was ready at 2.04, besides the personal, I thought I could jump the record Italian and I never had the feeling that size was a limit, unfortunately I got tired ». She unloads, this time when her goal is reached, with a clear mind and instead of the tears she expected, she sees the flag. A tricolor that came out on the track: more than waving it, she rubs it, opens it in front of her face, contemplates it. Who knows how many times it has seen itself projected in such a gesture and in reality it is very different, because that flag has never been seen here, after having been the one at the Olympics: “We are talking about a team that has absolute champions and in comparison I am not no one therefore the responsibility of the first medal did not make me feel good, now I hope it is an inspiration and can be a stimulus: if I did it, anyone can do it ». And it is a lie because it would take the same reckless courage, rarity, but it is also true because without insisting you cannot really know how it ends. –

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