Numerous sportsmen took part in the round table moderated by Marco Franzelli with the special presence of Pippo Baudo
9 May 2018 - Dreaming as young people know how to do. Was this the fil rouge which linked the different experiences of the athletes present at the round table of the Sport and Culture Week on the theme "Never give up".
He certainly hasn't given up Arjola Dedaj, gold medalist in the long jump at the 2017 London World Championships, who said she had crossed the sea on a rubber dinghy to reach Italy, leaving Albania where "disability was a taboo" and blind people, like her, “they were marginalized and felt useless in society”. Today you are a happy sportswoman, who talks about "all-round sports, regardless of whether you are disabled or not".
With her boyfriend Emmanuel DiMarino - they call them 'the dream couple', not surprisingly - sprinter in athletics and bronze in London 2012 despite a congenital clubfoot. "Unfortunately it took me time to accept my disability which today is not a disease for me but a characteristic," she said. "Up until I came of age I was ashamed, my legs are different, the left is smaller... In this sport has helped me not much, more: the races are done with shorts, so...".
The Domitilla Picozzi, born in '98, was no less with his debut in water polo in a mixed team in which "trying to steal the ball or compete with a boy was really a great stimulus". The young woman, at the table moderated by the journalist Marco Franzelli, he explained: “That's when you start to say 'why not try to take it one step further?'. In the beginning it's a dream, over time that dream becomes a goal and in the end you fight to try to achieve it”. Domitilla is a medical student and student UCBM he recalled how "sport helps study because it forces you to have a lot of rigour, to make sacrifices, and then, when you find yourself in front of a professor, your aptitude for competition helps you to be calmer".
The stories of also speak of a typically sporting tenacity Fabrizio Donato, Italian record in the 17 and 73 meters in triple jump, captain of the national athletics team who at 42 is training for the Tokyo Olympics, or Enrico Chieffi, Italian sailor, tactician of Moro di Venezia in the historic America's cup of 1992.
Has been Mark Amelia instead to recall another epochal stage for Italian sport, the 2006 World Cup which came after the Calciopoli scandals: “Our victory in the World Cup was born from the first day of retreat after the end of the championship. Some players from that national team end up in the papers: there have been difficult situations, with people who came to Coverciano, not to cheer us on, but to insult us. In the rooms of Coverciano, during the 15 days of preparation, we all huddled together”. And again: “In the locker room, after the penalties for the World Cup, we were celebrating. There was a pool in the shower area and Francesco (Totti ed) put the bed in the water. Del Piero took it in full force: we laughed a lot but he got hurt. We really bonded a lot as men: even today we have a chat where we exchange thoughts and impressions on the world of football and beyond".
Finally, it was Pippo Baudo, welcomed by a standing ovation from the students, talking about himself, the beginnings of his career and the splendid results achieved. On how not to give up, he left some advice: "Never abandon the path you have taken and continue to aim for excellence and preparation".
