Less than three weeks from the beginning of the xxx edition of the Olympic Games, the formation of the blue expedition is complete. The team was defined after the Athletics Championships held in Bressanone last weekend, the last two athletes to earn the chance to participate in the London event were Jose Reynaldo Bencosme (400m hurdles) and Gianmarco Tamberi (high jump), while the first to qualify overall, not only for the Italy but among all the participants, it was almost two years ago, on 31 July 2010, Niccolò Campriani in target shooting.
Eventually there will be 292 Italian athletes in London (165 men and 127 women) and the disciplines that will see them as protagonists will be 28. The Azzurri could have been 294 but the Italian Athletics Federation decided to give up two passes for technical reasons (Silvano Chesani in the high jump and Anna Giordano Bruno in the pole vault). Of these 292 as many as 25 are the so-called new Italians, boys and girls for the most part born abroad, in some cases even grown up outside our country and who in the past competed for other countries, became Italian for sporting reasons or by marriage. Compared to Beijing 2008, when there were 340, therefore there are 48 fewer Azzurri, a figure deriving mainly from the lack of qualification of many team sports such as football, basketball, handball and hockey, as well as 8 fewer canoeists and 7 sailors, 292 instead is the same number of athletes who were involved in Barcelona '92 (19 medals arrived at the time), while the Olympics to which Italy brought the highest number of participants were those of Athens in 2004 with as many as 373 athletes, bringing home 32 medals.
Of the blue expedition that is preparing to begin this adventure the least young and certainly more experienced is the canoe champion Josefa Idem, almost 48 years old and in her eighth Olympics (joining the two record-breaking brothers Piero and Raimondo D'Inzeo), winner of one gold, two silvers and two bronzes, one of which in Los Angeles in far 1984 with Germany before being naturalized Italian in 1990 following the marriage with his coach Guerrini, in time to take part in the World Cup of that year where the long series of triumphs in blue began which perhaps is not over yet. In the days when Idem in Atlanta won her first Olympic medal with Italy, Francesca Deagostini was born, exact date August 5, 1996, who with her not even sixteen years old is the youngest of the blue group: her specialty is artistic gymnastics and the hope that this is only the first of other Olympics.
As far as the blue bulletin board is concerned, throughout its history Italy (it did not participate only in the 1904 edition) has conquered a total of 522 medals (191 gold, 157 silver and 174 bronze) and occupies the sixth position among the most successful nations. The editions that brought us the most satisfaction were those in Los Angeles in 1932 and those hosted by us in Rome in 1960, with 36 medals in both cases, while always in the Californian city but 1984 was the time we won the most gold medals, 14, a number even higher than the 13 medals won in total in Montreal '76, the leanest edition of successes for our national team if we exclude the very first participations.
Four years ago, 27 medals finally arrived in Beijing. In London, although it has already been mentioned that there will be fewer Azzurri athletes, predictions give hope that the medal table may exceed thirty. The greatest expectations, as always, are linked to fencing and swimming, but also target shooting, clay pigeon shooting, women's cycling, men's boxing and obviously the 50 km walk with Alex Schwazer, not to mention the water polo and volleyball teams, both men and women, who could play it out until the end. Of the 292 athletes of the Italian expedition, 43 can already boast of the Olympic medals won in previous editions in their palmares, the one that counts the most is our standard-bearer Valentina Vezzali with 7 of which 5 of the most important metal. So far curiosities, rankings and various statistics, in twenty days it will be up to our champions to try to update and improve them.
