PRIZES | 03/06/2024 | 08:11
The wait is over. Tonight for the 25th Loyalty to Sport Award at the Hotel Country Club of Capannori there will be the presentation of the Golden Sphinxes, coined by the Lucca-born artist Giampaolo Bianchi, to sports figures who have remained in the hearts of Italian athletes for their exploits at world and Olympic level. The president of the Coni of Tuscany Simone Cardullo returns to attend the event, but other guests have also been announced including Count Guido Anzilotti who will bring testimonies of Giacomo Puccini, given that in his villa in Castellaccio di Uzzano the musician composed La Boheme since 1893 to 1895 and this year marks the centenary of his death. Journalist Alberto Cerruti and Inter observer Leonardo Simoni also return. Every year this award leaves indelible memories to all the honorary members who support the organizer Valter Nieri and the honorary president Stefano Gori. Unforgettable are the awards ceremonies of the past such as those of Paolo Rossi and Pietro Mennea, two symbols of sport on a global level and awarded in Lucca only in this event which boasts hundreds of personalities listed in the Wikipedia encyclopedia in its roll of honour. For the institutions there will be the Mayor of Capannori Luca Menesini and the councilors Lucia Micheli and Serena Frediani.
THE GOLDEN SPHINXES 2024. This is the list:
Soccer: Franco Causio, Ivano Bordon, Alessandro Andreini (former player of Lucchese and on the verge of becoming team manager of a major Serie A club), Marco Landucci (former goalkeeper of Fiorentina, Inter and Lucchese and recent assistant coach of Juventus, navigating for many years as Max Allegri’s deputy).
Cycling: Vincenzo Nibali, Alessandro Petacchi (one of the strongest sprinters in the world of all time and current technical voice of Rai at the Giro d’Italia), Claudio Golinelli (the most victorious athlete of all time of teams from Lucca and Capannori, winner of 3 world championships on track wearing the Fanini jersey and still the last Italian to have won the title in the speed and keirin specialties), Roberto Amadio, the team manager of the national teams and Pierluigi Castellani.
Volleyball: Simona Rinieri, current DS of Teadora Ravenna and spiker in the only women’s world championship won by Italy in Berlin 2002.
Yudo: Giulia Quintavalle. She is the greatest Italian judoka of all time and the only one to have won Olympic gold in this discipline in Beijing in 2008.
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