They are in everything 126 athletes that l 'Italy will lead to the Olympics, i.e. the 43 percent compared to the total 291 athletes who make up the blue group. TO London it will be the first time that all the countries participating in the Games, including those of Islamic religion, have at least one woman entered in a competition. Sport has finally turned pink globally and fate has it that women are the ones to open the Olympic competitions. Today the women's soccer will anticipate the official ceremony by playing the United Kingdom-New Zealand match valid for elimination round E.
As for the Italian group, since Antwerp 1920, the year which marked the participation of the first blue athlete: Rosetta Gagliardi in tennis or since Berlin 1936, the year in which Ondina Valla conquered the first female gold, our women have practically same chances as men to bring home Olympic medals. And, in at least eight cases, it is golden hopes in individual disciplines.
But who are the girls of Italy ready to leave their mark on these pink Games? Some need no introduction, because international sport already knows them as record-women of their respective disciplines. We are talking about athletes like Valentina Vezzali, 38, the first fencer in the world to win three Olympic gold medals in three consecutive editions o Alessandra Sensini, 42 years old, who has completed 6 editions of the Games and who, despite the international federation having excluded its class of boat (windsurfing) from Rio 2016, interviewed by Corriere, quietly doubts that this will be her last time.
One that knows about female records is Josefa Ditto that in London she will be the woman with the most Olympic games played ever. However, her 48 years of age, which make her the most aged blue, do not prevent her from hoping for a gold medal in canoeing (K1 specialty). In reverse, Alice Mizzau, with her 19 years she will be the youngest swimmer in the blue group. Only 5 hundredths of a second prevented her from qualifying for the individual test of the 200m freestyle, but her contribution to the 4 × 200m relay will be that of the grit of those who want to swim her best time on the occasion of the Olympic fraction.
Remaining in the water, the women's water polo team, led by Tania DiMario, best player at the recent European Championships in Eindhoven. How not to mention the multiple swimming champion Federica Pellegrini and the diver Tania Cagnotto. The first, in Beijing 2008, was the only Italian woman to win an Olympic gold in swimming with the new world record in the 200m freestyle, the second, however, achieved her record in the 3m springboard final: for the first time she scored more than eighty points in a dive while, in 2009, she was the protagonist together with Francesca Dallapé of the first world silver success in the history of Italian women's diving, in the synchronized 3-meter springboard.
The list goes on with Romina Laurito, 25 years old, rising star of rhythmic gymnastics, ready to write another page of history after the three world championships won in the last three years, Giorgia Bronzini, eclectic cyclist capable of winning both on the track and on the road, Jessica Rossi, so precocious as to win the world gold at only 17 years old, when still due to the laws of our system she could not possess the license to carry firearms and had to make her rifles registered to her teammates.
Then there are the local teams of Tennis and Volleyball, with the multi-blasoned ones Flavia Pennetta, Francesca Schiavone, Sara Errani e Roberta Vinci for tennis ed Eleonora Lo Bianco e Frances Piccini for volleyball just to mention the best known names. The technical commissioner of women's volleyball, Bartolini, has only the gold medal in mind and the men's team will probably have to work hard not to be outdone. As far as tennis is concerned, Errani-Vinci and Pennetta-Schiavone are the couples designated to participate in the tournament which sees the unbeatable Williams sisters entered. However, silver and bronze are within the reach of the blues.
In a few minutes the first women will take the field. They are not Italian, but we can only wish them good luck for having inaugurated an Olympics that is finally more pink, but without pink quotas.
Look at the photo gallery of the blue athletes
