26 years after her death, the tribute from her hometown to a pioneer of Italian sport
It took more than a quarter of a century, but now Rita Trapanese belongs (finally) to a piece of the collective memory of her city: Milan. From today, Monday 15 June 2026, the cycle path that runs in via Valentino Mazzola (speaking of sporting giants…), at the corner of viale Molise, therefore parallel to via Piranesi – where Rita built her feats inside the temple of ice disciplines – is in fact named after her.
WHO HE WAS
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“Olympic artistic ice skater, 1951-2000” reads the toponymic plaque unveiled in the early hours of the afternoon. Naturally, it is impossible to add anything else. But much more should be added instead. Because Rita, one of the pioneers of Italian women’s sport, has reached where no Italian has gone before. Up to a global medal, a European medal. Indeed, two: bronze in Zurich 1971 and silver in Gothenburg 1972 behind the Austrian Trixi Schuba who, not even a month later, in Sapporo, would win the Olympic gold. Miss Trapanese, eight consecutive national champions between 1965 and 1972, also took part in the Games: at the 1968 Grenoble edition she was twenty-fifth, and splendid seventh in the Japanese one four years later. We had to wait 42 years and Carolina Kostner with her historic bronze in Sochi 2014 to find a better Italian result in the specialty.
THE TESTIMONIALS
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“I never met Rita – said Claudia Giordani, Olympic silver medalist in the Alpine skiing special in Innsbruck 1976, now a Coni delegate for the Metropolitan City of Milan, who deserves credit for being one of the promoters of the initiative – but, as almost the same age, I think I can well interpret her feelings at the time. In the year in which Milan was an Olympic city and will always remain so, it was right to give her a tangible memory. The hope is that her example will be a model and reference for today’s young athletes.” “Milan, with this dedication, pays homage to a great champion and a fellow citizen who was able to bring the talent, determination and values of sport into the world” declared the municipal councilor for Culture, Tommaso Sacchi. “The memories and the strength of the bonds she built over time – added Cristiano Vaglini, Rita’s son, flanked by his sister Gaia – continue to shine. Today our mother won another splendid race”. Too bad, among so many presences, the absence of a representative of the Lombardy Federghiaccio committee, although announced.
The legacy
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Rita, having untied her skates, made her way in other fields, in work (responsible for public relations for Saima, a company also closely linked to the legendary ice hockey team) and in society. A tragic road accident on the Autosole, between Reggio Emilia and Parma, on 10 August 2000 took her away at the age of just 49 together with her husband Maurizio Vaglini, head doctor of the Cancer Institute. Rita today also still lives in Bobo Diulasso, in Burkina Faso, where a sports center named after her is operational in a school of thousands of students, created through Ciai, the Italian Children’s Aid Center and inaugurated in 2002, as well as a clinic that bears the name of Maurizio. It is the same year in which the Piranesi Ice Rink sadly closed its doors. For Rita it was a second home: as a young girl and athlete, she lived across the street, in via Kolbe. Milanese through and through. Now even more.
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