A debut like this had only been seen in the home edition of Rome 1960, when Italy was at the top of the medal table at the end of the first Olympic day. Another sprint start was that of Athens 2004, with two golds in the very first races signed by Montano and Bettini. But this time it went even better, and well beyond the rosiest expectations, which on the eve of the event spoke of an Italian expedition on a lower scale, with less hope of a medal than in the last few participations in the Games.
Instead, at London 2012, 2 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze immediately arrived, and Italy was second in the medal table behind only China. The successes were signed by the incredible and timeless Dream Team of women's foil, who becomes legendary by signing a historic hat-trick: the entire podium was dyed blue thanks to Elisa Di Francisca, Arianna Errigo and the eternal Valentina Vezzali, standard bearer on the eve and in search of a third consecutive individual gold, which has not arrived but which with these premises could easily arrive in the team event.
The other gold of the day is instead a big surprise: the men's archery team, led by veterans Frangilli and Galiazzo (already Olympic medalists 16 and 8 years ago respectively), was not credited for the podium and instead, taking advantage of the sensational elimination of the highly favored South Korea, quietly reached the final where at the last shot, with a heart-pounding 10 from Frangilli, he took away the most prized medal for the United States.
Shortly before, in the afternoon, the first Italian medal had arrived, also a very surprising one: in the 10 meter pistol shooting, Luca Tesconi he had never finished higher than tenth place in his career in World Cup races. Thanks instead to an impressive last series, the blue was awarded the silver medal.
This sprint start, however, should not be deceiving, because Italy is lacking in many team sports and the first week is more favorable to us with fencing and swimming, while the second will see athletics take center stage and precisely the final phases of team sports , where we will have significantly fewer cartridges to play.
