Gazzetta Sports Days, the first day talks: De Giorgi, Agostini, Nibali

From our correspondent Andrea Buongiovanni

& commat; abuongi

October 21
– Palermo

Rivers of words, one more fascinating than the other. These are the ones that flow during the first day of the SeeSicily Gazzetta Sports Days talks at the Palermo Sport Tourism Arena, at the Foro Italico, on the city waterfront. While all around hundreds of children and teenagers storm the 17 camps set up to try as many disciplines. It continues on Saturday and Sunday: large numbers and a lot of enthusiasm are expected.

After the workshop, proposed in collaboration with Sport and Health “Sport breaks down barriers”: among the guests, the former world champion of the auction Giuseppe Gibilisco, to break the ice on stage was the legendary Giacomo Agostini, eighty years old and not hear them. “To think – the great centaur recalled – that my parents just didn’t want me to ride. It was a notary friend who convinced them to let me give permission, but only because they understood that the request was for a bicycle … Dad even gave me a Giulietta Sprint to make me forget about two wheels … But I held on. My secret? The meticulousness. Especially with the mechanics ”. Ago, for many reasons, was a precursor. “I was the first to ‘dirty’ your blacks with a sponsor, I helped increase safety on the circuits and then I invented myself as an actor for photo novels and films, but I didn’t have what it takes. I was also among the first to collaborate with an athletic trainer and follow a diet. But nothing mental coach: I’ve always done my own thing. In my time, the world championship was a family, it became business. Today the pilots don’t even talk to each other. And the technology is exasperated. I preferred it when we did everything ourselves, with the mechanics and engineers. I am happy to have spent my years like this, without the luxury of today, the motorhome and the cooks. I had the local baker as a mechanic, and a bag with bread, cutlets and sachets of hydrolithin to make sparkling water as a restaurant “. All this does not mean that Agostini does not appreciate today’s stars: “Rossi was great and Bagnaia will win the world championship: if not on Sunday, at the next opportunity”.

Moving on from the wild boys of the Bebe Vio Academy, it was then the turn of Fefè De Giorgi, the head of the men’s national volleyball team, new world champion. The Salento coach relived the fantastic world championship ride: “The quarterfinals against Olympic champion France, the semifinal against Slovenia and the final against Poland and its 12,000 fans – he re-proposed the emotions of the tournament – we were a great group and a great squad. With much credit to the boys, who were perfect ”. Fefè explained his philosophy, his fixed points and his rules. Going back to when he played and the differences with that era. There are four (three plus one) of him world golds: under the net, none like him. “The Egonu case? I condemn all forms of racism, but I do not enter into the merits, because I do not know Paola and the relative situation ”. Now everyone is asking him for the Olympic title: “Calm down: first, next season, there is another European to try to conquer. And then the Games will come: I know that our federation has never reached that title, but once it has qualified, it will be tackled like a normal tournament ”.

Nibali

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Then the most awaited by the public and by Sicilian enthusiasts: Vincenzo Nibali. The shark told himself before the end of the day with Palermo football. The king of Tour, Giro and Vuelta retraced the highlights of his career “with no regrets, perhaps only Roubaix. I miss the medals with the national team, but I would do it all again. And now I would like to find a new champion, from one-day races or from races to stages not important. My future? It is all to be built “. And away with sweet memories. “The victory of the first Giro d’Italia was the most exciting, that of the Tour an incredible feat, the first Vuelta was a sign of lightheartedness. Now we have to wait a bit to find another Italian in stage race. I enjoyed competing in the 2023 Giro for how it was designed. I still don’t think about the story, but I accept everything, the crashes and how I reacted to the crises. I am proud of my career, I cannot think of life at the desk as it will be. withdrawn with joy and the emotions in Sicily, among my people, remain priceless “.