Far from a fiasco, the Italian expedition to the Tokyo Olympics was ultimately triumphant, with the tenth gold medal won by a incredible men's 4 × 100 relay, led by already individual gold Marcell Jacobs.
In fact, the first week for our colors had gone well but not very well (many medals but few golds), but the accounts are done in the end, and indeed two days before the closing ceremony one can already say that Italy in Japan broke its all-time record of medals overall: 38 as we write, with some races still to be run (they will become 40) but in the meantime the 36 of Los Angeles 1932 (equally divided into 12 golds, 12 silvers and 12 bronzes) and Rome 1960 (13, 10, 13), in the home Olympics which, as we know, always gives something more, as witnessed also on this occasion by the Japanese delegation which finishes in third place with over 50 total medals (in Rio 2016 Japan finished sixth in the medal table by nations, with 41 total medals and half of the golds).
Italy therefore breaks the record of any other Olympics, at least in total medals: the 14 gold medals in Los Angeles 1984, in the Games boycotted by the Soviet bloc, remain a mirage but this time however we arrive at 10, surpassing the 8 of Rio 2016 and London 2012. In the last two Summer Olympics, however, we won far fewer medals overall: 28 on both occasions, largely surpassed. An even more sensational result if we consider that in Tokyo some traditionally important sports for us were missing: from shooting and fencing we got 6 medals but zero gold, while five years ago in Brazil we won half of the gold medals, four, in shooting, rising to five with fencing. This time all this failed but it wasn't a bad thing, given that the semi-disappointment in sports considered "minor" was more than compensated for by exploits in much more popular disciplines, such as athletics.
In fact, the latest exploit is that of Men's 4x100m relay, surprisingly on the top step of the podium in a race dominated for years by the USA-Jamaica rivalry. It is the tenth gold, the thirty-eighth medal and the fifth gold in athletics, which had completely failed in Rio 2016 (zero medals) and had come out of London 2012 with only one bronze. An unthinkable balance, with the icing on the cake of the relay composed by Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Fausto Desalu and Filippo Tortu, after Jacobs himself had won an historic gold in the 100 meters dash ten minutes after Gianmarco Tamberi had won ex aequo the high jump competition, another competition in which the triumph has been missing since Moscow 1980 (another partially boycotted Olympics) with Sara Simeoni. And without forgetting the historic brace in the walk, with Antonella Palmisano and Massimo Stano in the women's and men's 20 km.
So Italy was finally a protagonist in the queen discipline of the Games, athletics, and in particular in the symbolic races of the 100 meters and the fast relay. But it wasn't just that. In fact, what is drawing to a close was also the Olympics of some new disciplines, and even there we were able to have our say, with 2 medals (gold and bronze) in karate, but also a placing in surfing. And then it was the women's Olympics: in Tokyo, considering all the countries represented, women had the most important presence ever (about 49%) and ours were no less. For the first time an Italian (Irma Testa) climbed to the top step of the boxing podium, and for the first time a female rowing crew put the Olympic gold medal around their necks. After the European Football Championships and Matteo Berrettini's historic Wimbledon final, the great Italian summer continues.
