Andrew Howe aims for European Championship 2024

Andrew Howe always knows how to convey something. He did it as a kid, a super precocious athletics talent hovering between speed and the long jump, and he became, for those who knew nothing about this sport, “the snack guy” thanks to a lucky commercial. He still does it today, after having passed the end-of-career milestone, a career filled with gold from the 2006 European Championships and silver from the 2007 Osaka World Championships, before backtracking and having second thoughts. With a dream-goal: to participate in the continental event that will take place in Rome, his city, from 7 to 12 June. Andrew told the students of the Tasso high school and the San Giovanni Battista private scientific high school about the months he spent, the illness of his mother who luckily is now better: “I said: if you can do it, let’s do it together. And then he will soon become a dad. So what I do I dedicate to them.” “What I do” is nothing more than training. No longer in Rieti, but at the Martellini stadium of the Baths of Caracalla. “I’m still in the introductory phase, but I’m confident. When I competed in Siena (he jumped 7.32, ed.), it was an emotion: I looked like a kid, I even arrived late… And the desire is the same as when I was 18 years old. And then there is the promise I made to my mother: to end my career at the European Athletics Championships here in Rome and I am giving my all to reach the finish line.”

SPORT THAT UNITES

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And Howe himself was the testimonial of the Roman afternoon entitled “Sport unites Europe” promoted by the EuroRoma 2024 Foundation in collaboration with the representation of the European Commission in Italy and the office of the European Parliament in Italy, organized in Rome in the Esperienza space Europe-David Sassoli in Piazza Venezia. And Pina Picierno, vice-president of the European Parliament, underlined an idea of ​​Europe that is not “an agglomeration of bureaucracy that lives on an existence detached from reality” also because “every single action of ours without the social, cultural and sports would be in vain.” In short, a Europe of tracks, stadiums, platforms (right Andrew?) capable of uniting through sport. Paolo Carito, general director of the EuroRoma2024 Foundation, illustrated the progress of the organization of the event and in particular of the volunteers who will help athletes, technicians and professionals on a daily basis. “About 25 percent of the requests we received came from countries outside Italy and we are preparing to form an international team of young people who will make a fundamental contribution.” And you, Andrew Howe, have you ever been a volunteer? The question is obvious and Andrew says that yes, “at the beginning I carried the athletes’ baskets, I helped out, and then the next day I went back to the field and I wanted to do like them”. The spirit is always the same. “I will do everything I can to be there.”