The first swimming medal arrives! Martinenghi bronze in the 100 breaststroke
- TOKYO 2020
The first swimming medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is bronze, and Nicolò Martinenghi signs it! At the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, the Italian (photo Ferraro - GMT Sport) placed third in the 100 breaststroke final with 58"33 behind the Olympic champion, the British Adam Peaty, gold in 57"37 and the Dutch Arno Kamminga (58"00).
Twenty-one years after Sydney 2000, when Domenico Fioravanti and Davide Rummolo took two-thirds of the podium (first and third), the Italian breaststroke team is back on the five-ring podium.
Martinenghi bronze in the 100 breaststroke
Three bronze medals for Italia team! Mirko Zanni is 3rd in the 67 kg category
- WEIGHTLIFTING
The third bronze medal of the day for the Italian Team at Tokyo 2020 comes from weightlifting. It was signed by Mirko Zanni (photo Mezzelani - GMT Sport) who, in the 67 kg category, conquered the third step of the podium, with 322 kg total, behind the Chinese Lijun Chen (332 kg, with Olympic record) and the Colombian Luis Javier Mosquera Lozano (331 kg). For Zanni, this is his second Olympic medal after taking bronze at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.
For the Italian Team, as mentioned, this is the third bronze medal won in this edition of the Olympic Games, the fifth overall (in the Italian medals table there is also a gold and a silver).
Italian weightlifting is back to win an Olympic medal 37 years after Norberto Oberburger won the 110 kg gold medal in Los Angeles '84.
"Lifting has not won an Olympic medal for 37 years? I am convinced that I will be the forerunner of a new era - the Italian athlete's warm comment -, more medals will come because we are a united team, we work well, there are important athletes, and we follow the Federation's project".
Zanni wins a heavy bronze
Giuffrida bronze in 52 kg! On the Olympic podium as five years ago
- JUDO
Odette Giuffrida is a bronze medal in Tokyo 2020! The Italian judo player is still on the Olympic podium, and after the silver medal in Rio 2016, she conquers the bronze medal in the -52 kg overcoming the Hungarian Reika Pupp at the golden score. On her way to the medal, the Italian (photo Pagliaricci - GMT Sport) defeated the Romanian Andreea Chitu by ippon at the golden score and then beat the Belgian Charline van Snick with a waza-ari, before being defeated with a waza-ari by the hostess Uta Abe.
The Italian Team thus achieves four medals at Tokyo 2020: 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze.
Odette Giuffrida always on the podium
Longo Borghini again! Bronze in the road race as in Rio 2016
- CYCLING
Tokyo 2020 is like Rio 2016. As five years ago, Elisa Longo Borghini won the bronze medal in the road cycling road race. The Italian (photo Sirotti - GMT Sport) crossed the finishing line of the Fuji International Speedway, after 137 km of route, in the third position at 1'29 from the Austrian Kiesenhofer (3:52.45), Olympic champion, in front of the Dutch van Vleuten. For the Italian Team, this is the third medal in this edition of the Games.
New Olympic bronze for Elisa
Dell'Aquila champion in the -58 kg! First Italy team gold at Tokyo 2020
- TAEKWONDO
The first gold medal of the Italy team in Tokyo 2020 bears the signature of Vito Dell'Aquila, in taekwondo. The Italian from Mesagne was the undisputed protagonist of the -58 kg category at the Japanese Olympic Games and at the Makhuari Messe Hall got the better of the Tunisian Khalil Mohamed Jendoubi 16-12 in the final.
The Apulian had started his path to Olympic gold by defeating the Hungarian Omar Salim 26-13 in the Round of 16 in the -58 kg category. The Italian then beat Thailand's Ramnarong Sawekwiharee 37-17, paving the way for the semifinal, where he defeated Argentina's Lucas Lautaro Guzman 29-10.
Dell'Aquila, born in 2000, the year taekwondo made its debut in the Sydney Olympic programme, thus embellishing his trophy cabinet, including a European gold and bronze medal (2019 and 2018) and a world bronze (2017).
For the Italian Team it is the second Olympic gold medal of all time after the one won by Carlo Molfetta in London 2012 (also from Mesagne).
Gold Taekwondo for dell'Aquila
Tokyo 2020: first Italy team medal! Samele takes silver in the individual sabre event
- FENCING
The Italy team inaugurates the medal table of Tokyo 2020 with the silver medal of Luigi Samele in the men's sabre. The Italian lost only in the final to the Hungarian Aron Szilagyi with a score of 15-7. In his ride to the medal, the Italian had overcome the Korean Junghwang Kim (15-12) in a semifinal won by winning the derby with Enrico Berrè (15-10).
The Italian (photo Ferraro - GMT Sport) is the second Olympic medal after the team bronze medal won in London 2012.
Silver Saber with Luigi Samele
The curtain rises on the Games. The Italian tricolour waves in the hands of Jessica Rossi and Elia Viviani
- TOKYO 2020
A year late, the curtain rises on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The first in history to be postponed by 12 months, the first of the Covid-19 era. The first major world event in which the athletes of the Planet (reproduced in the finale in the sky to the notes of Imagine) meet to measure themselves, confront themselves and others, going beyond those walls that the coronavirus has erected between us.
The ceremony staged at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium sends a message of hope to the world, united by Sport in the name of Olympic values. The journey starts from the primordial beginning, common to all, and winds its way up to recount the difficulties faced by the athletes to reach this goal, which has never been so dreamed of and coveted. First, Emperor Naruhito and IOC President Thomas Bach are in the gallery. Then, after a year of uncertainty, Japan's national flag entered the field, carried by athletes, medical staff and those who had worked hard to overcome this difficult period. First, there was an emotional tribute to the victims of the pandemic. Then, a minute's silence was dedicated to the eleven members of the Israel team killed during a terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Games.
In keeping with tradition, with two important symbols of Japan on the field - the sun, which also appears in the national flag, and Mount Fuji - and with a special link to the 1964 Tokyo edition, the five circles made of wood from the 47 Japanese prefectures take shape at the centre of the stage, in memory of the Games 57 years ago, when athletes from all nations brought with them the seeds of the commemorative trees that would establish an indissoluble link between the Olympics and the Land of the Rising Sun.
Then it is time for the athletes' parade, the undisputed protagonists of the five-ring event scheduled until 8 August (photo Mezzelani/Ferraro/Pagliaricci- GMT Sport). Greece starts, as usual, followed by the IOC representative of the refugees. At the back of the United States, organisers of Los Angeles 2028, followed by France, are working on Paris 2024 and the Japanese hosts.
Under the watchful eye of the CONI President, Giovanni Malagò, and the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers with responsibility for Sport and multiple Olympic medallist, Valentina Vezzali, Italy entered the Stadium in eighteenth position, according to the Japanese alphabet, at around 20:50 local time, after Israel and before Iraq. The Tricolour entrusted by President Mattarella - celebrated before the parade by the Italian Team with a video - waves in the hands of an unusual couple of standard bearers composed of Olympians Jessica Rossi (shooting) and Elia Viviani (cycling). Behind them a large representation of the Italy team, with the Secretary-General of CONI, Carlo Mornati, responsible for Olympic Preparation and 110 athletes (of 22 disciplines: Basketball 3x3, Canoe Slalom, Rowing, BMX Cycling, Track Cycling, Artistic Gymnastics, Judo, Swimming, Basketball, Volleyball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Fencing, Softball, Equestrian Sports, Surfing, Taekwondo, Tennis, Tennis Volleyball, Shooting, Volleyball and Diving) out of the 384 expected in Japan (record number of Italian athletes at the Olympics). Our athletes paraded in white, wearing a special EA7 Emporio Armani garment, with the masks of the same colour, which now mark our daily life. Ready to live a dream with all the Italian fans, glued to the TV, in this unusual edition of the Games without an audience: unique for the gender equality among athletes declined in all aspects; unique and symbolically strong as stressed by President Bach in his speech, held after that of the President of the Organising Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Seiko Hashimoto. "This feeling of unity is the light at the end of the dark tunnel of the pandemic. Today is a moment of hope - his words -, very differently from what we would have imagined. Finally, we are all here together, athletes and political refugees. Let me be happy about this moment. You athletes have never given up, and you are an inspiration.
It was the Emperor's turn to declare the Games open. The Olympic flag is carried by six athletes from every continent, including Italian volleyball player Paola Egonu, representing Europe and our country. The Tokyo 2020 Games are already tinged with the colours of the Italy team. It was the turn of tennis player Naomi Osaka to light the brazier. In the sky, fireworks illuminate the Japanese night. Lights of hope for a world that wants to emerge from the darkness of the pandemic.
Opening Cerimony
Casa Italia opens its doors with its 'mirabilia'. Malagò: "it is our added value"
- TOKYO 2020
There is Casa Italia also in Tokyo 2020. Despite the pandemic, Italian hospitality, a point of reference in the Olympic world from Los Angeles 1984 to today, raises the curtain ready to accompany the five-circle adventure of the Italian team at the Japanese Olympic Games. Casa Italia has been set up at "The Kihinkan - Takanawa Manor House", a building characterised by Art Nouveau architecture from the beginning of the last century in the Minato district, about 10 kilometres from the Olympic Village and the Main Press Centre. "I believe that given the restrictions we are experiencing, having Casa Italia is a real added value. Of course, there will not be the situations that you know, but we have done the maximum possible," said CONI President Giovanni Malagò at the opening ceremony. IOC member Ivo Ferriani, President of the IBSF and the Association of Winter Olympic Sports Federations, Ivo Ferriani, honorary IOC members Franco Carraro and Mario Pescante, President of the Association of Summer Olympic Sports Federations Francesco Ricci Bitti and President of the International Baseball and Softball Federation Riccardo Fraccari were present.
The Japanese edition of Casa Italia, produced as always under the direction of Marketing and Development Director Diego Nepi Molineris, is dedicated to Italian Mirabilia. The term refers to the famous rooms of wonders where, between 1500 and 1700, collectors brought together pieces of art (artificialia) and natural objects (naturalia), keeping them together and displaying them with no difference or hierarchy between them. Thus, all the objects were called 'mirabilia', in other words, wonderful things (photo Pagliaricci/Ferraro - GMT Sport).
A Casa Italia as a showcase for Made in Italy, in compliance with the anti-Covid regulations that will contact the athletes less possible, so much so the medallists can only go to Casa Italia at the end of their participation in the Games. A difficult edition of the Games, "but a beautiful one," said Malagò, "where each of us will be able to say I was there.
Tokyo 2020, Casa Italia opens its doors. The Italian ‘mirabilia’ on stage
Italbasket flies to the Games. Record trip with 384 Italians qualified
- THE EXPLOIT
After a 17-year wait, it is time for the Italians to shine. It's an extraordinary Italy that dominates the Nikolic Arena in Belgrade and conquers the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, after their last appearance in Athens 2004, when the ‘Azzurri’ (Italian athletes) won the Olympic silver medal. This is Italy's 12th time participating in the Olympic Games: 1936 (7th place), 1948 (17th place), 1960 (4th place), 1964 (5th place), 1968 (8th place), 1972 (4th place), 1976 (5th place), 1980 (Silver), 1984 (5th place), 2000 (5th place), 2004 (Silver).
In Tokyo 2020, Italy will play in the round with Australia, Nigeria and Germany, who won the Qualifying Tournament in Split, Croatia. The qualification of the national men's basketball team means that the Italian Team has a record number of qualifying players: 384 Italian athletes who will live their Olympic dream in Tokyo. There will also be basketball. The wait is over. There are 384 Italian athletes who qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympicsin 36 different disciplines:
Never have so many Italians taken part in the Games: 370, an historic record! Surpassing Athens 2004
- WITH ATHLETICS' QUALIFIEDS
The National Teams Technical Director, Antonio La Torre, has announced the Italian national team's qualifying invitation to the Tokyo Olympic Games (athletics programme: 30th July - 8th August). The Italian team is made up of 76 athletes, including 41 men and 35 women, the highest number ever recorded at the Olympics for Italian athletics.
The number of Italian athletes qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has therefore risen to 370 (185 men, 185 women) in 34 different disciplines: this is the all-time qualifying record for the Olympics in Italian history. It surpassed the previous record set in Athens 2004, when 367 Italian athletes competed. Today's exploit is to be added to those already achieved in recent weeks, when the Italian Team had recorded the highest number ever linked to the number of female participants and those relating to qualifying individuals. Today, the last wall has been knocked down: history has been written.
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