“Is everything okay in Rome? Yes, I would say yes.” It could be the imaginary conversation between the average sports user and the athletics enthusiast. In a blue key, the discussion ends quickly: the greatest Italian team ever, in terms of participation and medals.
The super team made up of 116 athletes (113 actual) was not exaggerated, it was just big enough to win the greatest possible number of medals: 24. Twenty-four, figures that had not been seen since the times of the old Soviet Union or East Germany, and which after the fall of the Berlin Wall, let’s say in the last thirty years, was only surpassed by Russia in the 1994 championship in Helsinki with 25 medals.
European Championships in Rome, Italian athletics in the Olympus
Italy has completely rewrote its European history, going beyond all expectations. 15 medals were predicted, 20 were dreamed of, beyond that was beyond imagination. The record for Italian medals in a European Championship was the 12 won in Split 1990. In Rome, that figure was almost equalized only with the gold medals: 11.
The 11 gold medals say that the victory in 2023 in the European Team Championships, i.e. the former European Cup, was not an isolated case, but the fruit of an expansion of the technical qualities of Italian athletics in all sectors.
The Azzurri won in speed (100 and 4×100 men), in the bottom (5000 and 10000 women and half marathon men), in obstacles (110 men), in jumps (tall men), in throws (men’s weight and women’s hammer), in the march (20km women). With the silvers and bronzes the “hunting territories” become even more.
European Championships in Rome, not a Serie B championship
Italy wins but not due to the demerit of the others. In Rome there was running, jumping and throwing hard, unlike the European Serie B Championship. After a week of racing, here it is report 15 new Championship Records and 12 “World leading”, the best world time of the year. The Italians rewrote 11 new national records, but they were not always enough to win.
You see Alessandro Sibilio, who in the 400 hurdles surpassed Fabrizio Mori’s time (47″50 versus 47″54) but it wasn’t enough to beat the phenomenon of Karsten Warholm who set the championship record with 46″98. Same goes for the 4×400 mixed, the national record with 3”10’69, but surpassed by Ireland with the championship record of 3”09’92, which is also the best world time of the year. Here you are Larissa Iapichinosecond in the long run with a “jump” of 6.94, however beaten by Malaika Mihambo who reached 7.22, the best world measurement of the season.
Absences yes, male speed not exciting, but also presences of athletes who are already legends like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, with his third European double in the 1500-5000 metres, like Armand Duplantis who climbs up to 6.10 in the pole vault (record of the championships) or Femke Bol who still dominates in the 400 hurdles with 52″49 (championship record).
European Championships in Rome, audience: A lot or a little?
As always happens, there is only one way to end up in the spotlight in sport: winning. This Italy was also so successful a television success, with the evening sessions capable of attracting millions of spectators: 3 and a half on Tuesday and Wednesday, even over 4 million in the final stages of the show put on by Gianmarco Tamberi. Then, in the last two days, even the President of the Republic showed up in the stands.
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and Gimbo Tamberi
Everything, really everything is fine, then? Impossible not to make mistakes. The thorniest issue was that of the audience in the stands. A lot, a little? Of course, as the days went by we saw increasingly packed stands, attracted by the results and the appeals of the Italian athletes on TV. However, the fact remains that, in the end, 5 euros were enough to attend such a historic event in Italian sport. Is Italian athletics really worth that little? It costs more to attend a football match in the Eccellenza championship. Not to mention the resentment of those who bought tickets in advance: two days for 200 euros, only to find them, at the time of the races, on sale for 20 euros. That’s not how you make money.
On the pitch, however, too many times the computer system linked to the start failed. Start null for no apparent reason, the gun that manages to miss firing twice in the 10,000m final. Small details that can make the spectator smile, but which are a drama for the athletes.
European Championships in Rome, head to the Games
And now, what will remain of this European Championship? What will be the legacy in the world of Italian athletics? The excitement will pass quickly because Olympic fever will rise. It is in Paris that Italian athletics will play out their future, as happened after Tokyo.
Between the 24 medals in Rome and the 5 golds of the last Olympics, what will be the new real dimension of the Italian track? For now, let’s enjoy the Roman hangover for a few more days before darkening ourselves in the grip of nefarious thoughts. Who wants to be happy, there is no certainty about tomorrow.
