The “mine” of new champions
Out of 300 thousand members, the base of practitioners on the track is currently around one third. To extract a new generation of athletes from this mine, Fidal has created a pyramid made up of central and territorial technicians, increasing the number of large gatherings dedicated to the youngest and most promising, as well as opportunities to compete internationally, ensuring assistance also at the health level. For top athletes, such as Jacobs, Tamberi and Filippo Tortu, ad hoc routes and staff have been defined, planning the vintages in synergy (and no longer in opposition) with the military or police groups for which they are usually registered. Antonio La Torre, technical director since September 2018, wanted stable coordination in this area.
Coni then did its part, investing in the federal centers of Formia, Tirrenia and Acquacetosa. Precisely in Formia, the true home of Italian athletics, an avant-garde structure, the new federal president, Stefano Mei, unforgotten middle-distance runner European champion in 1986, elected in January 2021 at the top of FIDAL, hopes to be able to now raise the next Olympic champions. The national team already has many at home. «We have chosen to bring 76 athletes here – he explained to Sole 24 ore on the Tokyo track shortly after the triumphs of Jacobs and Tamberi – because we believe in these boys and in these girls. The secret? Put them in a position to express themselves at their best and trust them without creating harmful pressures. The results are coming, even if we will see the real strength of this team in Paris ».
The legacy of the old management
Mei is ready to take up the legacy of the previous management, beyond the obvious differences, improving it where necessary and rebalancing where appropriate the relationship between center and periphery. The higher good of athletics and “the new era we have entered” demand it. On the other hand, the successes of Jacobs and Tamberi are not isolated events. A few months ago for the first time the Italian under 23 national team, for example, obtained the record in the medal table at the European championship. The victories at the youth level were not a rarity but the juniors got lost in the passage to the higher categories. The strategies implemented in recent years aim precisely at avoiding this dispersion.
Now Mei’s Fidal will have to manage the wave of success that usually follows the great media exposure connected to the Olympic triumphs as has already happened for other disciplines that have become “fashionable” in the past. Mega rallies and a healthy relationship with the territory will be important tools. For example, the Tamberi path was built in Ancona, also with structural investments on the plant and platforms, as well as an attempt was made to work in Syracuse for the pole vault. And of course the super exposure of the new champions will also have to be managed. For Jacobs and Tamberi the doors of the Star System are now open. Sponsors and communication agencies will ring their doors. There are contracts for 3-4 million a year at stake.
But with the flattery and lavish earnings, criticisms and insinuations will also rain, such as those fed yesterday by the Washington Post and Times which, in a more or less explicit way, instilled suspicions on the genuineness of the improvements of the new Olympic champion in the center meters.