The summer of women’s sport, from basketball to football to volleyball: why do these stories struggle to find space?

We wrote only a few months ago that 2024 had been the year of women in Italian sport, with the golds of gymnastics, cycling and volleyball at the Paris Olympics, we can now say that it has not been an exception. Even 2025 is a year of women’s sport, in particular in this summer, and perhaps it should stop making this distinction and give space, on TV and beyond, to all sport. Certainly Jasmine Paolini found space, from next week to Wimbledon, less reserved for gymnasts with the new success of Manila Esposito. Team sports are not to be missed in these weeks.

Basketball girls

The first appointment is the one with basketball and is perhaps the least expected and predicted. Italy faces Belgium, reigning champion, in the second semifinal of the women’s European Championship. France challenges Spain. The blue take the field on Friday 27 July at 19 and 30 Italians, directed on Rai, Sky Sportununo and Dazn. France-Spain is played at 16.30. Italy returns to the semifinal to the European Championship 30 years after the Brno edition in 1995 when the silver medal arrived in the final with Ukraine. Italy won the first European championship in historywhat was played in Rome in 1938. The other two medals arrived in Cagliari in 1974 (bronze) and as mentioned in 1995 in Brno with the silver won by the team coached by Riccardo Sales and who on the pitch among others saw Catarina Pollini, even today before among the blue for presences (252) and points (3,903). Between Europeans, World Cup and Olympics, Italy did not reach the semifinal, with any senior national team, from Athens 2004, from the male silver Olympics.

The European Championships

The 2025 women’s European football championships take place from 2 to 27 July in Switzerland. The sixteen participating nations were divided into four groups, where the first two classified of each of them will go to the quarterfinals. England is reigning champion. Italy is in group B with Belgium, Spain and Portugal. First game of the blue on July 3 at 6pm against Belgium. The matches of the 2025 women’s European football championships are broadcast in Italy, on live TV and clear on Rai channels and streaming on the RaiPlay platform.

The national team coach Andrea Soncin has convened 23 players. Of the 34 players who participated in the Coverciano rally, 10 were excluded. Of these Astrid Gilardi, Valentina Bergamaschi, Martina Rosucci and Aurora Galli will be aggregated to the team for the preparation period. In the event that there were diseases or accidents, the regulation allows you to change the list until midnight on the day before the debut.

Goalkeepers:

• Rachele Baldi (Inter)
• Francesca Durante (Fiorentina)
• Laura Giuliani (Milan)

Defenders:

• Lisa Boattin (Juventus)
• Lucia di Guglielmo (Rome)
• Martina Lenzini (Juventus)
• Elena Linari (Rome)
• Elisabetta Oliviero (Lazio)
• Julie Piga (Milan)
• Cecilia Salvai (Juventus)

Midfielder:

• Arianna Caruso (Bayern Munich)
• Manuela Giugliano (Rome)
• Eleonora Goldoni (Lazio)
• Giada Greggi (Rome)
• Eva Schatzer (Juventus)
• Annamaria Serturini (Inter)
• Emma Severini (Fiorentina)

Strikers:

• Chiara Beccari (Juventus)
• Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
• Michela Cambiaghi (Inter)
• Sofia Cantore (Juventus)
• Cristiana Girelli (Juventus)
• Martina Piedmont (Lazio)

The volleyball national team

The Olympic champions are continuing to win: as of June 26, 2025, the Italian women’s volleyball national national team does not lose a game from June 1, 2024. Oora is the Nations League and then the appointment of the world championship on stage from 22 August to 7 September in Thailand. Paola Egonu and companions, some new in a generational change that works, under the guidance of Julio Velasco, are called to defend the first place in the world ranking. Italy is in group B.

Italy-Slovakia (22 August 2.30 pm)
Italy-Cuba (August 24 at 11)
Italy-Belgio (August 26 at 11)

The numbers of women’s sport

The Italians who play sports, occasional or continuously, are almost 20 million and of these over 8.5 are women (43.3% of the total). A censis report published in 2023 says so. 29.2% of women over three years old practice at least one sport, twenty years ago was 23.3%. Of these 6.5 million (21.8%) they do it continuously, six percentage points in more than 2003.

Growing and positive numbers that have a consideration below. The last Global Sports Report, published by Nielsen, says that female sports supporters are currently one of the most active and dynamic audiences for brands that invest in sport. In 2024, 50% of the world population declared itself interested in women’s sport, growing compared to 45% in 2022. In particular, the interest in women’s football was raised from 18 to 22%.

What is missing

There is no room on a managerial level and among the coaches who are rarely coach and even more difficult to be for men. There was no change that would have been epochal. Cinzia Zanotti61 years old, coach of Geas Sesto San Giovanni refused the invitation to lead the Brescia Germani in the men’s championship. “I said no for the somewhat tightened times,” he explained to Corriere della Sera«The team is to be done quickly: I never thought about the male, I’m happy with what I do. I still know little, time was needed and I wouldn’t have had it, in addition to the fact that I would have fallen into a complex reality. It is a no for this year, it may be that there is instead a different answer in the future. Maybe”.