Rome – Watch them on July 26, watch them hold up that flag that waves in the sky of Paris, in what will be an unprecedented Olympic ceremony, not inside a stadium but along the Seine, in the heart of the heart of Grandeur: Arianna Errigo and Gianmarco Tamberi they will be Italy's standard bearers at the next Games. A woman and a man as suggested by the IOC, very sensitive to the issue of gender equality, and as CONI had already done at Tokyo 2020 when Jessica Rossi and Elia Viviani opened the Italian delegation. The rule not written, but applied, by Giovanni Malagò: on the identity card to wear the tricolor under profession it must say Olympic champion.
Arianna Errigo was one in 2012, London Games: she was in the foil dream team that defeated the world and that legacy has never been lost. Gimbo Tamberi is reigning gold in the high jump, the triumph in Tokyo shared with Mutaz Barshim, friend and then rival, is imprinted in the eyes of the whole world, arrived on that afternoon of lucid madness for Italian sport: Tamberi gold in the high, Jacobs gold in the 100, one after the other. Breathtaking, speechless. He could only be the standard bearer, a splendid representative of our sport: world champion (including indoor), European champion (twice), Olympic champion. Champion of misfortune when he was forced to give up the Rio 2016 Games due to a ruptured tendon, but that cast, instead of knocking Gimbo down, became the fuel to make him jump even higher and is at least as memorable in the photos as the medal. He is the captain of the athletics team, he is the man who lights up the stadiums, a show with every jump. Clap your hand and the amphitheater curve of the jumping platform that becomes Bombonera.
Arianna Errigo comes from far away, London is her cardinal point. The gold in the team foil represents joy and pride, the silver in the individual foil represents the suspension between glory and anger. A silver won, or lost, against teammate Elisa Di Francisca in one of the most exciting finals that our foil remembers. Two queen bees, so different and so strong. Arianna carries that regret with her and inside her for four years, she arrives in Rio with the desire to rock the world, there is always Elisa to beat (who will win silver in the end), but she goes out in the first round. On the podium? No, on the platform, tears in the dark. Arianna has a hard head, she explores another weapon, the sabre, she has to unload the toxins. But foil is the call of the wild, in Tokyo she wins a team bronze, that is her home. Arianna (re)builds her career and builds her life: she gets married in 2019 and in 2023 she becomes the mother of twins. Which she brings to the stage and which give meaning to life more than a medal. Now Paris to complete a cycle, one might say to close a Circle. Arianna and Gimbo: everyone on your feet, Italy is coming.
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