Sport, the good things of the year that stopped the games

No Olympic Games, no European football. Championships suspended and all other competitions postponed. 2020 was also an unimaginable year for sport. The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed by a year, the same goes for the Europeans that Mancini’s Italy should have played. All the competitions that have restarted have done so in periods other than the usual one and without the presence of the public. However, this did not prevent the sport from being able to give emotions even in the year that is ending.

Larissa Iapichino
She is the new queen of athletics, the 18-year-old daughter of former pole jumper Gianni Iapichino and Fiona May, Olympic silver medalist and world long jump champion. Following in the footsteps of his mother, he jumped 6 meters and 80 beating the Italian Under 20 record and scoring the second Italian measure of all time, the fifth world championship of the year. It only takes a few centimeters to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics which would never have gone if they had stayed in 2020. Not the only record beaten this year. Yeman Crippa, born in Ethiopia and raised in Trentino, with his 13’02 ″ 26, after thirty years he ousted Salvatore Antibo from the roll of honor on 5000 meters.

Benedetta Pilato and the swimming that never leaves us
He already has the pass for Tokyo Benedetta Pilato. The holder of the Italian records in the 50 and 100 breaststroke turns 16 in January 2021, both in short course and long course. Thomas Ceccon had like her the pass for the games. Federica Pellegrini, despite Covid, is more than ready to earn her place at the Olympics. Gregorio Paltrinieri was confirmed by also setting the European record of 1500 meters.

Federica Brignone and the ski girls
No Italian had ever won the general ski world cup. Federica Brignone succeeded by adding the specialty cups in giant and combined. And she is not alone. Another 5 athletes got on the podium in the last season and also in the current one: Sofia Goggia, Marta Bassino, Elena Curtoni, Nicol Delago and Francesca Marsaglia

The funeral of Paolo Rossi
Perhaps one of the saddest moments of the year, but also a demonstration of what a team is. The companions of Paolo Rossi, world champions in 1982, were all present. They brought the coffin and reminded everyone that there is friendship behind one of the greatest Italian sporting successes.

Sinner champion in Sofia and the rest of the Italian blue tennis
He was the first born in 2001 to qualify and win a match in a Grand Slam, the first to qualify for the quarter-finals, the first to beat one of the top 10 players in the world, the first to win an ATP tournament, to Sofia, at the age of 19 years and 3 months, the earliest in the history of Italian tennis. And he too is not alone. Lorenzo Musetti, Tuscan from Carrara, was the first born in 2002 to reach a semifinal in an ATP tournament. Flavio Cobolli won the junior doubles title at Roland Garros. Lorenzo Sonego beat world number 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals in Vienna.

Grosjean comes out of the flames
Of course there is the feat of Lewis Hamilton, who won his seventh world title. Formula One, however, expected it. What happened to Romain Grosjean, who was practically unharmed by the flames of his car on the Bahrain GP track, is a miracle. His Haas spun and crashed into the guards. It broke in two and caught fire. He came out after a few seconds with burns to his hands and feet, but alive thanks to the increasingly advanced safety measures in F1.

The feat of Chris, the first boy with Down’s Syndrome to triumph in Ironman
His name is Chris Nikic, he’s 21, he’s American. He has accomplished a sensational feat, which breaks down prejudices and drags us into a new territory, where man’s possibilities are endless and where it is nice to think that sport is really a tool to find one’s identity. Chris closed in 16h46’09 ”the Ironman Florida Visit Panama City Beach 2020. Chris has Down syndrome.

Rafa Nadal’s record
The first message after Rafael Nadal’s 13th win at Roland Garros came from Roger Federer who had just joined 20 career slam tournaments. «I have always had enormous respect for my friend Rafa: as a person, and as a champion. He has been my biggest rival, for years: and I think we pushed each other to become better players… I hope that victory number 20 is just another step in a path destined to continue, for both of us. Well done, Rafa. You deserved it”. During the Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy, the Majorcan also won the 1000th victory in the major circuit.

The girls on the roof
The example of the sport that does not give up comes from Italy in lockdown and from two girls on the roofs of Finale Ligure who have played tennis from one building to another. The images went around the world and Roger Federer also went to play with them.

Lakers campioni in Nba
Los Angeles won the 17th ring in its history, the most emotional, the most engaging. LeBron James kept his promise made in January to the Lakers and dedicated the victory to his great friend and model, Kobe Bryant, who tragically died with his daughter Gianna and seven other people on January 26 in a helicopter crash.

The football you don’t expect
Discounted even if the championship of the Juventus. It is the ninth in a row. The victory of the Italian Cup by Napoli is much more engaging, Gennaro Gattuso’s first career triumph as a coach. Equally exciting was La Spezia Calcio’s first time in Serie A history.

Dorothea Wierer, the Snow Queen
The athlete from Anterselva has won the world title in Biathlon on the home snow, queen of the valley and yet another protagonist of Italian skiing. Italy had never won a gold medal in the seven home world championships, “Doro” succeeded in a sport, Biathlon, which combines two disciplines: rifle shooting and cross-country skiing. In its golden year also the World Cup.

Filippo Ganna and the great laps won at the last stage
Italy had never had a time trial world champion. In Imola, in a very successful world championship organized in a few weeks after others gave up, he won without rivals and then won in the time trial stages (and not only) of a Giro d’Italia raced in October instead of May. Who won it? Tao Geoghegan Hart at the last stage. The penultimate to assign the definitive yellow jersey to the Tour de France raced in September and won by the Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, in front of compatriot Primož Roglič, then winner of the Vuelta between October and November.

Mbandà, from rugby to volunteering
For over two months, in full pandemic, the rugby player of the Zebre di Parma and of the national team Maxime Mbandà collaborated with the Yellow Cross, deserving the honor of Cavaliere al Merit della Repubblica from President Mattarella. “I’m proud I feel part of this world,” he said. In the following months he faced Covid from his parents and became a father. Certainly a year he will never forget.