For the second time in a row, Italy has topped the medal table at the European Athletics Championships. With a total of 22 medals (ten of them gold) Italy pipped host nation Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the top spot. Once a nation of footballers – having won the World Cup four times – now Italy is showing itself to be a nation of runners and jumpers.
There are a few explanations for how this has happened. First, Italy offers a distinctive form of public support to its athletes. Many elite sportsmen and women are employed by state security forces.
While this system has attracted some criticism for “militarising” sport, it has nevertheless proved very successful. Athletes can receive a salary, training support and a degree of financial stability long before they become famous enough to attract commercial sponsorship. Crucially, they do not have to choose between pursuing an athletic career and simply making ends meet.
Second, Italian families play a crucial role as the primary financial, material and logistical supporters of young athletes. At the grassroots level, local athletics programmes – often led by former professionals or passionate coaches – are equally important in identifying and nurturing talent.
The ‘new Italians’
There is, however, a third important factor that becomes clear when looking at Italy’s medal winners. Five of its ten gold medals were won by athletes from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
It’s the so-called “second generation”: the children of immigrants who were born or grew up in Italy and who now make the difference in sport. Nadia Battocletti, the queen of European distance running on the track, has Moroccan heritage through her mother. Larissa Iapichino, the long-jump gold medallist at the European championships held in Birmingham, is the daughter of the British-Jamaican long jumper Fiona May.
Marcell Jacobs, the 2020 Olympic champion in the 100 metres and European record-holder at this distance, has an African-American father. And in swimming, the stellar example is 19-year-old world record-holder Sara Curtis.
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