Stit really is be stubborn sportswoman to overcome hostility that twentieth-century society was still brooding against women determined to measure themselves before men in the competition field. Whether it was tennis, basketball, gymnastics or horse riding, the sporting feat until a few decades ago was considered a thing for men, and the gymnasium for a long time to therefore excel in the war enterprise. And in that world there women were inevitably left with only the space of the house and children. That’s why the challenges won by the protagonists of this book, the sports Stubborn subtitle History of forgotten athletes(chaosphere, euro 14) of which he tells, fictionalizing them, the stories Caterina Caparello very few remember. But to make progress a reflection on women and sport, on the subject of labor rights and decision-making roles, knowing them can help.
A record team
«I selected the athletes to save from oblivion by following a purely sporty meter. The one of records. Tale of Elvira Guerra, the horsewoman, star of the circus who in 1900 in Paris he enrolled at Undercover Olympics. She is the first Italian to compete but she is not really part of the national team which in fact does not count any women (only 11 men) »says Caparello. «Continues Rosetta Gagliardi officially registered at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, the only Italian at the Olympics where he competed in tennis. And then the first medalbrought home by artistic gymnastics team of Pavia at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. And the story of Marina Zanetti, the first technical commissioner, who in 1929 joined the Athletics Federation, to leave a window open to women’s sport, after the fascist regime had restricted the space for women even more». And then and then, a collection of 8 stubborn sportswomen who allow you to draw an accurate picture of that season.
Stubborn sportswomen, between reality and fiction
Caterina Caparello, expert sports journalist, author of Stubborn History of Forgotten Italian Athletes (Caosphere, 14 euros).
“These women have left behind only the faint trace of their sporting exploits. Very little is known about their life away from gyms and playgrounds, except for Elvira Guerra a star of the circus showof which I could reconstructing the route also through postcards who advertised her shows» specifies Caterina Caparello, a journalist who deals in particular with women and sport.
«Of some of them not even the date of death is known with certainty. But the battles of these really stubborn sportswomen, which I tell and who had to fight to assert the right to play sports, they are all plausible. In the spectrum of possible experiences for women who they did not fully fit into the role society designed for themof wives and mothers. And of which the public debate of the time is full of examples» Of the rest of the impossible coexistence between women and sport Monsieur De Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, was first of all convinced.
What is a trained body for?
Sofia Goggia.
Sporting activity for girls and women represents an “excess of pleasure”. When the fascist regime opens gymnastics in elementary schools to both girls and boys, as a preparatory to the participation in the square of the fascist Saturdaythe goal is to have more handsome young men to send to war and women “mares” capable of giving birth to more and healthier children. «It’s a season of great ambiguity, as the story of Marina Zanetti also demonstrates» explains Caparello. And the treatment reserved for Hilde Prekop, the swimming champion of Trieste» – who is part of this bouquet of stubborn sportswomen, «used by the regime for photo shoots in which her statuesque body was supposed to be an incentive for women to play sports. To swim, not for himself, but precisely to make childbirth easier».
The freedom to play sports
“To bring all the stories together of these stubborn sportswomen, however, it is precisely the drive to play sports to find yourself, your own personal fulfilment. one’s own dimension of life, of a freedom that begins yesterday as today from being fully master of one’s body» explains the author of Stubborn.
Because we still need stubborn sportswomen
Paola Egonu, star of the national volleyball team, at the Sanremo 2023 Italian Song Festival. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli )
Today again, the space dedicated to women who play sports at a competitive level in Italy is different from that of men. Not just in terms of numbers. Registered Italian female athletes, approximately 28 percent of the over 4 million registered sportsmen and women Cones(2021 data). But especially in that of rights, presence in decision-making roles, and also space for their exploits in the media. Caparello explains it well, in the introduction of his book. It is true that 2022 marked an important moment with the transition to sports professionalism for Italian female footballers who play in Serie A.
equality to be achieved
«This conquest, paradoxically, revealed that rights that already seemed acquired, according to the common opinion, weren’t at all» explains Caparello. For example, that almost all female athletes are still there most athletes are not professionals and also those who work as sportsmen live on expense reimbursements. or he is guaranteed a fixed salary only if he is enrolled in one of the military sports groups. There is also a question for motherhoodwhich today is protected with a Fund, refinanced year after year by the Governments and therefore without permanent protection, nor for all».
Where are you commissioners and managers?
“There my favorite story among those that I have collected » continues Caparello, « is that of Marina Zanetti and her difficult choice in favor of the women’s sports movement. Marina was the first federation technical commissioner in Italy. It was 1929, almost a century ago. Today, or rather in 2021, 12 percent of technicians are women. And this too it is a road still to be traveled. With stubbornness.”
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