Nine Golden Sphinxes were awarded at the 2nd edition of the Loyalty to Sport Award which was held on the evening of Monday 3 June at the Hotel Country Club in Gragnano. A special evening that did not betray, as has happened since 1999, the expectations of the many guests. Creator, mind, soul and presenter of this historic award is Valter Nieri, colleague and collaborator of Journal of Lucca who, even on this occasion, managed to bring along illustrious names from sport and beyond. We met him just before the start of the evening and, despite the thousand things to think about and the details to define, he took a few minutes to talk to us about this new event dedicated to the world of sport at 360 degrees: “Tonight we will have many illustrious guests – Valter tells us – both among the winners and among those we have invited and who will be with us on this occasion. In these 25 years we have had the immense honor and pleasure of rewarding champions of the caliber of Eddy Merckx, one of the greatest cycling champions of all time but also the unforgettable Pietro Mennea. In 2005 we paid homage to Paolo Rossi at the Hotel Guinigi and this, for me, is a beautiful memory but I could mention many other athletes who received our Golden Sphinx”. It is undeniable that the great expectation was for the great Vincenzo Nibali, “the shark” who from Sicily, passing through Tuscany, entered the empyrean of cycling champions of all time. “Nibali is one of the seven great champions, in the company of Anquetil, Gimondi, Merckx, Contador, Froome and Hinault – adds Valter – to have won the three great stage tours, Vuelta di Spagna, Giro d’Italia and Tour de France and besides him, among these, only three have managed to conquer two monument classics (for Nibali the Milan Sanremo and the Giro di Lombardia twice ed.). Before leaving, however, I would like to thank Debora Vanuzzo, geologist and volleyball player who will be hostess of the Loyalty to Sport Award this evening”. Just enough time to thank Valter when Vincenzo Nibali appears behind us. Serene and relaxed, he allows himself the first selfies and autographs, a couple of interviews for local networks and, thanks to his great availability, we manage to have a chat with him. What are the projects in the immediate future, we ask him: “I am still busy with the RCS group (organizer of the Giro d’Italia) – Vincenzo tells us – of which I am ambassador for all the most important events such as the last Giro d’Italia. I continue to support the Mastromarco Sports Group which was the team that welcomed me when I arrived in Tuscany at a very young age. But right now, everything is being reprogrammed; Getting off the bike and reinventing yourself is never easy.” At the historic grand start of the 2024 edition of the Tour de France from Florence next July, and for the three Italian stages, Nibali will be alongside the organization as the last Italian winner of the Grande Boucle, after Gimondi and Pantani. The awards ceremony, after Vincenzo Nibali, welcomed by a lot of applause, saw the alternation of athletes such as the 3-time track cycling world champion Claudio Golinelli, the world volleyball champion in Berlin 2002 Simona Rinieri and the world queen of skating Rebecca Terlazzi. The Golden Sphinx was also given to the current Spal team manager Alessandro Andreini, born in 1994 and former Lucchese player, to Pierluigi Castellani, for the great work done as president of the FCI of Lucca and Roberto Amadio, team manager of the national teams of Italian cycling and three times Italian champion among amateurs. The icing on the cake of the evening was the delivery of the Sphinxes to two icons of Italian football of the 80s, namely the champion Franco Causio, known as “the baron”, world champion in 1982 in Spain and legend of our football and at the “shutter” Ivano Bordon, goalkeeper who entered the Inter hall of fame and twice world champion, in 1982 as assistant to Dino Zoff and, in 2006, as goalkeeping coach in the victory of the fourth world title on German soil. Also present at the evening were the Olympic champion Giulia Quintavalle, Italian judoka and gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Alberto Cerruti, columnist for the Gazzetta dello Sport, who has followed the Italian national football team for over thirty years, sent to seven European and eight world championships, including the victorious ones in 1982 and 2006. Monday 3 June was a world-wide evening attended by the mayor of Capannori Luca Menesini, the sports councilor of the municipality of Capannori Lucia Micheli and the honorary president of the Loyalty to Sport Award, the athlete Stefano Gori. A presence that did not go unnoticed, however, was that of the former Juventus defensive column (70s/80s) Sergio Brio. Already awarded in the past at the Loyalty Award, he wanted to participate to be close to his friend Franco Causio. For everyone the appointment is at the 2025 edition.
Photo Ciprian Gheorghita
