With the two gold medals won in the 100 meters and in the 4×100 relay, Marcell Jacobs has not only dominated the Tokyo Olympics just ended, but also the Italian media: the blue flag bearer in the closing ceremony of the Games has in fact obtained 14,059 citations, almost double by Gianmarco Tamberi (7,179), ex aequo winner with the Qatari Barshim of the gold in the high jump. This is what emerges from the monitoring of over 1,500 information sources including print media (national, local and periodical newspapers), newspaper sites, major radios, TVs and blogs carried out by Mediamonitor.it, which uses technology and solutions developed by Cedat 85, an active company for over 35 years in providing speech content. Mediamonitor.it analyzed what was, from 23 July (day of the inaugural ceremony) to 9 August, the media visibility of the Italian athletes who won a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Between Jacobs and Tamberi, however, there is Federica Pellegrini, with 9,730 citations: the “divine”, while not going to medal, was confirmed among the protagonists of this edition of the Games, thanks to the fifth Olympic final obtained and her election in the IOC Athletes Commission.
The top ten medalists see Filippo Ganna in third position (5,364) who, after missing the podium for a few seconds in the road cycling time trial, in the team pursuit dragged the blue train towards the gold medal and the new world record, with a spectacular comeback against Denmark. Wooden medal for Filippo Tortu (5,204) who, after the opaque test in the individual race, unleashed all his talent in the last stage of the 4×100, recovering meter by meter and finally burning Great Britain at the finish line.
Fifth place in the ranking drawn up by Mediamonitor.it is the prerogative of Gregorio Paltrinieri (5,058), author of a real miracle: winning a silver in the 800 freestyle and a bronze in the 10 km of open water cross-country skiing despite having contracted mononucleosis a few weeks before the start of the Games. In sixth position Vanessa Ferrari (4,751), the first athlete in the history of Italian women’s gymnastics to win a silver medal in an individual event, followed by the winners of the team pursuit on the track (Francesco Lamon, Simone Consonni, Jonathan Milan and Filippo Ganna, 4,159 citations) and by the very young Vito Dell’Aquila, triumph in taekwondo (3,922). The 4x100m relay of Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Fausto Desalu and Filippo Tortu (3,763) and Irma Testa, the boxer from Torre Annunziata, winner of a historic bronze medal (3,573), close the top ten.
According to the analysis of Mediamonitor.it, the karateka Luigi Busà is the one who has collected fewer citations among the winners of a gold medal (1,741), while the lifter Antonino Pizzolato (737) and the 4×100 medley relay composed of Thomas Ceccon, Federico Burdisso, Nicolò Martinenghi and Alessandro Miressi (599), both winners of a bronze, are the least cited of all.
Tokyo 2020 marked a new watershed for Italian Olympic sport, with the record of medals won by the Azzurri, as many as 40 in 19 different disciplines: a result that rightly made the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò, proud, who achieved great visibility ( 5,210 citations).
Among the sporting events that partly stole the media scene at the Olympics, the investigation by Mediamonitor.it highlights the sale of the former Inter player Lukaku to Chelsea (4,838 mentions), the announcement of the farewell to racing by Valentino Rossi (4.418) and Lionel Messi’s move from Barcelona to PSG (3.583).