The curtain falls on Tokyo 2020 Olympics. For the first time in the history of the modern Games, wars aside, we have waited for them for 5 years and not 4: this brings the next edition of Paris closer, which will only be in three years, and above all it offered an unprecedented almost coinciding with the Olympics winter events, which will be held for the first time in the winter immediately following the summer ones. To be precise, in 6 months in Beijing, which will become the first city in history to host both a summer (2008) and winter edition. But first we must congratulate Japan: the pandemic has postponed the most anticipated sporting event on the planet by a year and has complicated its organization quite a bit. But thanks to vaccines and an exemplary protocol, Covid has practically not affected the normal course of the races. It certainly did not affect the Italian expedition, which achieved an historic and perhaps unrepeatable result: the only case of contagion among the Azzurri athletes, that of Bruno Rosetti in rowing, did not prevent his boat from taking the bronze and Italy to reach the all-time record of overall medals.
Were at the end 40: it is the first time that we reach the threshold with the "4" in front and we improve the lucky but very distant editions of Los Angeles 4 and Rome 1932 by as many as 1960 podiums. Thanks to this performance beyond expectations, Italy has confirmed in the top ten of Olympic sport, as has been the case for a long time now. We also reached double digits for gold medals: 10, something that hadn't happened since the Athens 2004 edition, which followed Atlanta 96 and Sydney 2000 with 13 golds. The record for first places remains that of Los Angeles 1984, which however - it should be remembered - was one of the boycotted Olympics, with the entire Soviet bloc refusing to participate, in the midst of the Cold War. In Tokyo, however, the competition was maximum, and more global than ever: 94 countries won medals, there was also the first medal in history for Turkmenistan, San Marino (even three, like Argentina) and Burkina Faso. Seven countries have improved their record of medals: in addition to Italy, also Brazil, Taipei, New Zealand, Japan, Turkey and above all Holland, which breaks into the top ten, within which it is the best country in proportion to the number of its inhabitants, just 17 million. Australia is also excellent, finishing fifth with 17 gold medals out of 25 million inhabitants.
The best European shipment, however, is that of Britain, which caresses the podium with 22 gold medals and 65 total medals, while France and above all Germany disappoint compared to the past and expectations: the transalpines finished with the same gold medals as ours but 7 medals less, while the delegation of the leading European economy stopped at 37 podiums, but it came from the 42 of Rio 2016, with 7 more golds conquered. The medal table is won, this time in extremis, for the seventh consecutive edition by the United States, burning China for a gold. The States rise to 1.061 gold medals adding up all the Olympic editions: the highest number of all, the only country whose anthem has sung more than 1.000 times since 1896. An excellent result despite the half-flop in athletics, especially in men's sprint, where the individual gold of the 100 meters has been missing since Athens 2004 and that of the 4×100m relay even since Sydney 2000. This time the two most important races of the Games were won by Italy, against all odds, thanks to theexploits of Marcell Jacobs, which was repeated with the relay together with his teammates Lorenzo Patta, Fausto Desalu and Filippo Tortu. Italy had never done so well in athletics: 5 medals, all gold, second place in the specialty medal table behind the USA and ahead of Kenya and Jamaica.
From Rio 2016 athletics returned without even a medal, while in London 2012 there was only a bronze. The last gold was in 2008 with Alex Schwazer in the 50 km walk. This time the walk brought two, the men's 20 km with Massimo Stano and the women's with Antonella Palmisano. And then gold in the high jump of Gianmarco Tamberi, the first Italian since Sara Simeoni, who won it in Moscow 1980. Italy's great satisfaction was precisely this: in addition to the numerical record of medals, we were finally protagonists in important competitions, including swimming which brought 6 medals , albeit without any gold. On the other hand, historical disciplines such as fencing (still 5 podiums but no gold medals, it hasn't happened since 1980) and shooting did not do well. In Rio, half of the gold medals (4 out of 8) came from shooting alone, a respectable but undoubtedly "minor" discipline compared to athletics, which instead in Tokyo contributed to half of the total Azzurri gold medals (5 out of 10): a big difference, as a business card. The assumptions were in part, given that the athletics expedition itself was a record: 76 registered for the competitions, never so many, just as there had never been so many, 385, the Italian participants in all disciplines.
With a welcome change: female participation. Out of 385 athletes enrolled in 36 disciplines, 186 were women. Half, just as women were half of the entire Olympic Village: 49%, the highest percentage ever, better than the 45% of Rio 2016 and incomparable with the 2% of Paris 1900 but also with the 13% of the previous edition held in Tokyo, in 1964. For Italy this was also the women's Olympics: the honorable farewell of Federica Pellegrini, who becomes a member of the IOC voted by athletes from all over the world, but above all 16 medals, including the historic one of Irma Testa in boxing, the first Italian ever on the five-circle podium. Finally, Italy closes Tokyo 2020 with another record: since sport is a profession, the economic aspect should not be forgotten and we are the most generous country of all in rewarding medal-winning athletes. In all, CONI will award 10 gold, 10 silver and 20 bronze medals to the winners approximately $9 million in bonuses overall, surpassing even the USA, which brought home four times as many gold medals and almost triple the total medals, but their heroes are awarded "only" 7,84 million dollars. Then there is France with a jackpot of 6,5 million, followed by Hungary, Japan, Spain.
The highest check for a single gold medal went to Singapore: $738.000. Other countries, however, including China, do not communicate the bonuses, while others still do not provide for them: among them Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. But evidently the stimuli arrive anyway, given the excellent results.
