On the podium also Rizza (silver in Kayak), Viviani (cycling on track) and Bottaro (in karate)
the budget
Italy, which in Tokyo 2020 marches with a thousand even on the 13th day of competition, is one step away from equaling a record that seemed impossible to achieve: the 36 podiums of the 1932 Los Angeles edition (when the competing countries to divide the spoils were few) and of Rome ’60, that of Nino Benvenuti and Livio Berruti, but also of a home factor made evident by the successes of the athletes of the organizing countries in all the Games.
The five medals taken yesterday with Stano, gold in the 20 km walk in the relative coolness of Sapporo and not in the humid climate of the capital, Rizza (silver in the Kayak), Paltrinieri (10 km cross-country swim) Elia Viviani (track cycling) and Viviana Bottaro (in karate, Kata specialty) close the discussion on the evaluation of the blue expedition. Beyond the position in the medal table, determined as always by the criteria of the ranking by the gold medals won, rather than by the completeness of the results, the balance is amazing. “But that’s not all,” say the Coni executives, convinced that other significant satisfactions can come in the last three days of competition. “And – they add to Casa Italia – all this is happening despite the fact that in the last two years CONI has been forced to battle on the political front and with Sport and Health as a result of the sport reform law”. The fact is that the Azzurri are ninth in the medal table with 7 golds, 10 silvers and 18 bronzes, just behind France (7-11-9). Eight overall medals more than a sporting power like the French one are a good sign but other data impresses even more.
Of course, Jacobs’ gold in the 100 is an epochal event, but even the team performance in athletics, which is still ongoing, is unprecedented. Three gold medals arrived on two other occasions, but both were Olympics halved by the logic of boycotts, Moscow ’80 and Los Angeles ’84. And in the defeat of team sports that did not make a concrete contribution to the Italian away match, the figure of 35 medals produced by 16 different individual sports, a record that indicates the overall health of a nation’s sporting excellence, makes a sensation. If the medal record were really equaled or beaten, the Azzurri’s return trip to Italy would become a triumphal march. –