Red and white and five rings: how many basketball players are there in their career they wore the Varese Basketball jersey e played at least one edition of the Olympic Games?
2024 Olympic year, with the Paris Games starting in a few weeks. The men’s basketball tournament already knows eight of the twelve participating national teamsawaiting the results of the four pre-Olympic tournamentswhich will also be attended by the Italian national team, starting today, July 7, in Puerto Rico.
Since 1936, the year of the debut of the basketball at the Olympics (they were those of Berlinalso present on site James Naismith), al 2021, the year of the Tokyo Games, There were 41 players from various national teams who, before, after or during their careers, played under the Sacred Mount.
Record-holder of all time participations Olympic basketball (and not only in reference to Varese…) is the current CEO of the company: Luis Scolawho took part in five editions from 2004 to 2021, also winning a gold at the first attempt, in a national team that included another former Varese athlete: Gabriel Fernandez.
Third (and final) gold medal He is the only American on the list of 41: Leon Woodtriumphant in 1984. The same Wood He then began a career as a referee at the NBA level, where he is still active with over 1,500 games officiated.
The most represented national team among the 41 obviously is theItalia: in order from the most recent to the oldest appearances, there are the tokens of Nico Mannion e Achille Polonara in Tokyo, and to find someone before them you have to go back to the silvers of 2004: James Galanda e Gianmarco Pozzeccowho in Athens also met another of their teammates, the Puerto Rican Daniel Santiago (also at the Games in 1996).
Other Argentines and Italians who passed through Varese and the Olympics in relatively recent times they are Andrea Meneghin e Marcelo Damiao in 2000, and Daniel Farabello e Diego Osella in 1996.
The internationality of the 41 red and white and Olympic players is, as expected, highlighted in its most recent part: the Nigerian couple Stan Okoye e For sale in 2016, Yakhouba Diawara with France in 2012, Evgeni Kisurin with Russia in 2000 and the Brazilian meteor Maury de Souza in 1988 and 1992.
The Croatian presence is also valid: looking backwards you can find Ukic’s hand in 2008 and 2016, Arijan Komazec in 1992 and 1996, here together with Veljko Mrsic.
The Italian national team silver medal in Moscow 1980 (the American boycott Olympics) had on the roster My Bags, Fabrizio Of The Flowers e Dino Meneghin (in the third edition of the four Olympic Games in which he took part).
Obviously In the 1960s and 1970s, the names of Pallacanestro Varese players abound loaned to the Italian national team: three participations in the Olympics for Paul Victor e Gabriele Vianelloteammates in blue in Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968; two for Gabriele Gavagnin (also him 1960 and 1964) and two also for Marine Zanatta (Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976) and Ottorino Flaborea (1964 e 1972).
The very first players who passed through Varese, before or after, to play in the Olympic Games were instead Victor Tracuzzi, Romeo Romanutti e Charles Cerionion the field for the London 1948 edition, the first after the Second World War. Different times…
Two foreigners from the very beginning: Manuel Ragawho played at home with the Mexican national team in the 1968 Olympics, and Faidon Matthaiouwith Greece took the field in Helsinki 1952.
To also mention the missing ones: Julius Iellini e Ivan Bisson (1972 e 1976), Henry Bovone e Guido Carlo Gatti (1968), Chestnut Buffalo (1964 e 1968), Franco Bertini (1964), Mario Alesini (1960) e Sergio Marelli (1952).
E With Paris 2024 in sight, who will join this list? There are five people with a present or past in red and white who are in the running to tread the five-ring parquet in France: William Caruso, Tomas Dimsa e Arturs Strautins will have to manage to secure a pass to the Games with their national team (Strautins is not even sure yet of making the roster); Serbia and Canada have already qualified, with respectively among the pre-called players also Aleksa Avramovic e Thomas Scrubb.
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