The Italian Olympics is from the moment to be considered almost triumphal: the blue delegation has already equaled the haul of gold medals in London 2012, when there are still four days of competition left and we already have two sports definitely in the final (beach volleyball and women's water polo). Also in terms of overall medals, which at this point are already virtually 25, we are very close to the balance of four years ago, and most likely we will end up above the forecasts of Coni himself, who had identified 25 as the most plausible number of medals.
But the Italy that wins is not only the one that competes with its athletes in the lanes, in the pool, on the platform or in any other field of competition at Rio 2016. There is also an Italy that excels beyond its own colours, providing the winning materials not only to its athletes but to various national teams that finished on the podium. It happened in rowing with the Filippi Boats, a family business from Donoratico (Livorno) that supplies boats to 15 different countries, obviously including the Italian one, and which comes out of Rio 2016 with the following haul: 5 golds, 6 silvers and 9 bronzes.
The total makes 20 medals, i.e. practically half of those assigned overall in rowing, which were 42 considering the various categories of men's and women's competitions. All other builders combined, if math is no opinion, have collected 22.
Among these medals are definitely the two blue bronzes, conquered by Giuseppe Vicino, Matteo Castaldo, Matteo Lodo and Domenico Montrone in the 4 without and by Giovanni Abagnale and Marco Di Costanzo in the 2 without. But that's not all: the company, founded in 1980 by the Filippi family and which has its shipyards in Donoratico, a stone's throw from the sea, has also supplied the winning boats to the French, New Zealand, Romanian, Lithuanian, South African, Dutch, Croatian, Danish, Irish, Norwegian, Chinese, Canadian, Polish and Estonian federations .
The success of the boats, which have the white and blue colors as a distinctive feature, starts from afar and in particular from sophisticated technologies designed in collaboration with the University of Ferrara and with the Department of Applied Mathematics of the Milan Polytechnic, which in the past he participated in the development of the Alinghi team, a multi-winner Swiss boat in the America's Cup sailing regattas.
However, there are not only the Olympics in Filippi's book: the Tuscan company boasts countless world titles, from the gold and silver won in Nottingham in 1986, to the 34 medals brought home in last year's world championships in Aiguebelette, France.
