On the 2013th, like all odd years without the Olympics and major football events, will be mainly remembered as the year of great confirmations, some excellent comebacks and, all in all, few innovations in the international sports scene.
Among the confirmations, there is that of the king of kings: Jamaican Usain Bolt, after 6 Olympic gold medals between Beijing and London, also scores a treble at the Athletics World Championships in Moscow winning the 100m, 200m and relay once again. The novelty, if anything, is that in this circumstance the fastest man in history has not recorded any world record, but the fact remains that the hat-trick in Russia is the second hat-trick in a World Cup, after Berlin 2009: the streak, which sees 15 gold medals overall between the world championships and the Olympics, was only marred by the false start in the 100 meters in Daegu. Then there would be the shadow of doping on the Jamaican national team, after the positive analyzes on several athletes, but for now Lightning Bolt is extraneous to everything: if anything, we'll talk about it again in 2014.
The other major sporting event of the year was the Swimming World Championships in Barcelona. In that case the confirmations come once again from the men's sector, with the excellent performance of the London 2012 heroes, the French Yannick Agnel and the Chinese Sun Yang. Wind of news instead from the women's sector, with the dominance of the very young Americans Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecki, but also the great return of Federica Pellegrini, surprise (and with regret) silver in the 200m freestyle.
Staying on the subject of great returns, the one of the stands out above all Spanish tennis champion Rafael Nadal, returned to the top of the ATP ranking after a long knee injury but above all winner of the eighth Roland Garros of his career: absolute record, surpassing Bjorn Borg's 7. On the other hand, Novak Djokovic, elected athlete of the year in Serbia, and also the revived Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, also surprisingly elected athlete of the year in Argentina, to the detriment of a certain Lionel Messi, are confirmed at very high levels. Roger Federer, on the other hand, seems to be on the path to decline: the all-time record holder of Grand Slam wins (17) will rely on a new coach in 2014, the former Swedish champion Stefan Edbergh, to attempt a revival at 32 years old.
On the other hand, there was no need for a relaunch in the world of basketball, where both in Italy and in Europe and in the NBA the winners of 2012 were confirmed: Siena, Olympiacos and Miami Heat. However, while for the last two there is the realistic possibility of a three-peat, as they say in America, it will be very difficult to see Mens Sana, eliminated prematurely also in the Euroleague, triumph again in Italy: after 7 consecutive titles, the The club's financial difficulties seem to mark the sunset avenue, with the departure of the two most representative champions, David Moss and Daniel Hackett, for Milan.
But the confirmation of confirmations is that of the multiple Formula 1 world champion, the German Sebastian Vettel, who defeats the Alonso-Ferrari pairing for the fourth time in four and breaks all the records of grand prix and title won at his age: there is no longer any doubt, the Red Bull driver is the new Schumacher and will probably win even more than his compatriot.
Still from the engines came one of the few real surprises of the year: the MotoGP world champion is the 20-year-old Spaniard Marc Marquez, who beats the competition of the more experienced compatriots Lorenzo and Pedrosa and establishes himself as youngest winner in the history of the premier class. Will it be able to confirm itself in 2014? We Italians are also awaiting the redemption of a certain Valentino Rossi…
But what year will 2014 be, in general? First of all, the big events are back: in June Cesare Prandelli's national team will fly to Brazil to play for the World Cup, where he starts as an outsider starting with a group that is not exactly easy with Uruguay, England and Costa Rica. But even before that it will be up to the winter sports athletes to land in Sochi, Russia, where the Olympic Games will take place in February: there are, to tell the truth, no great medal hopes for Italy.
Finally, a dutiful reminder. Among the many famous people who died in the year that has just ended, it is impossible not to pay homage to the memory of a great Italian sportsman, one of the greatest of the XNUMXth century and certainly a legend in world athletics: on 21 March, at the age of 60, Pietro Mennea died. Of him we will remember those 200 meters against all odds at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where he won the gold, keeping far more famous champions behind him. Even today he is the only 200m dash athlete in history to have qualified for four consecutive Olympic finals, as well as having held the 20m world record for almost 200 years with 19'72. Farewell, Arrow of the South.
