USad news has reached the world of sport and beyond: Mabel Bocchi, pioneer of Italian women’s basketball and multifaceted figure of culture and entertainment, passed away in her home in Calabria. He was 72 years old and he leaves with her one of the brightest and most unconventional figures in Italian sport. Bocchi, in fact, was much more than an athlete: she was a talented icon, intelligence outside the box and, above all, a woman who knew how to live with a curiosity and exuberance that led her to embrace very different worlds, from the playing field to the savannah, passing through television and politics.
Mabel Bocchi, the legend who made basketball history, has died
Mabel Bocchi, or rather Mabèl, as her Argentine mother wanted, was the woman who, in the seventies and eighties, brought women’s basketball, still far from the spotlight, to the front page. With Geas of Sesto San Giovanni he won eight championships in nine yearsa domain that explains its strength better than any statistic.
The most memorable moment of his career in 1978, in Nice, when he led the team to victory in the European Cupbeating Sparta Prague: it was the first time ever that an Italian women’s club, in any sport, won a European trophy. A feat that transformed women’s basketball from a niche discipline to national pride.
The national and international stages
From then on, he never stopped with the successes: with the blue shirt, Bocchi led Italy to results never seen before. In 1974 he won bronze at the European Championships in Cagliari, the following year he placed fourth at the World Championships in Colombia. Those were years in which women struggled to find space in sport, yet she managed to establish herself with talent and charisma. She wasn’t just a player: it was a symbol of emancipationcapable of demonstrating that women’s basketball could compete and win even outside national borders.
Farewell to Mabel Bocchi, icon of women’s basketball (Getty)
A life beyond the field
His sporting career, however, was only the beginning. Her exuberant personality and sharp intelligence accompanied her in a life full of changes of direction. Graduated at a very young age from ISEF, the Higher Institute of Physical Education, with top marks, he abandoned the studies he had undertaken in Medicine to pursue other paths.
She entered politics, but left disappointed. He chose to live for months in a Maasai village in Tanzania, without water or electricity, sleeping on the ground. Then, in the nineties, he became a professional journalistcollaborating with publications such as Corriere della Sera And Gazzetta dello Sport. In RAI he hosted Sports Sundaybut his adventure with state TV did not end positively.
An intense and unconventional life
Mabel Bocchi’s private life reflected the same boldness she displayed on the field. Calling himself a pain in the ass and a communist, a belief inherited from his left-wing father in a right-wing family context, the champion lived adventurous love storiesfrom a wedding on the beach with a Tunisian man to a relationship with a Masai in Tanzania.
He chose Calabria at the end of his careerattracted by the warmth of the place and the need to be close to her sister. A choice that once again reflected his free spirit, a way of saying that he was looking for a more human place, away from the spotlight and tensions of the big city. There she lived her last years, surrounded by sea and silence, until the day of her farewell.
The legacy of Mabel Bocchi
Mabel Bocchi, as we said, was not just a legend of women’s basketball: she was a symbol of determination, curiosity and freedom. His life, made up of victories and battles, of irony and adventures, remains like a story to be passed down. Today, San Nicola Arcella mourns one of his brightest figuresbut his name will not be forgotten. The memory of a voice that was able to make itself heard, on and off the pitch, will remain.