Olympics and sport, six words to describe them

Competitiveness

«For a child it is a small fire, for an adult it is petrol. For me it’s a work ethic that has been with me since I was little. Everything you do, my parents said, do it one hundred percent. Competitiveness is believing that hard work always pays off. My days are races towards a result. In sport, in study. I graduated late in Mathematics because I concentrated on basketball but I would never have accepted that I couldn’t do it. I’ve always hated losing, perhaps because I have an older brother and a younger sister and I wanted to prove myself. I started in Chieti, at 16 I went to Rome. One day I ask the coach why he didn’t let me play on the pitch. “You’re lazy,” he says. It is this phrase that transformed me. Since then I’ve been trying to outdo myself, but always counting on the team. Three years ago I founded it with my family Amani education Odva voluntary association that builds schools in Tanzania. Today it has 167 students. Competitiveness is giving your all for others.” Pippo Ricci, basketball player for Olimpia Milano and the national team (pictured)

Fatigue

«It is an ambivalent word because I believe that there are unproductive and productive efforts. We feed the former in the family and in the office in the form of stress and they make us privileged, just because they are often not necessary. The others are efforts aimed at self-improvement, rather than performance: so to speak Aristotle (in the illustration on the left), it is that daily exercise that leads to happiness. Today technology is concerned with circumventing fatigue and we experience happiness as a goal, devaluing the commitment it implies. For the ancient Greeks, however, life was either entirely happy or entirely unhappy. If you wanted to do something beautiful you couldn’t help but practice all your life to do it, cultivate it and enjoy it. From this perspective, happiness is a form of responsibility and our effort should serve to build our personality and relationships with others. Not just in sport. My model is maestro Vincenzo. In elementary school he made us practice being the best of what we wanted, and he used joy.” Marco Balzano, writer

Balance

«It is the word synthesis of my life. Mother at 27 (today she’s 40, ed.), a degree, a Master’s degree, twenty years of sport in the national team and a woman’s life. Balance for me is made of choices. If you understand when it’s time to change, you win. If you know how to stay in difficulty, you have won twice. My results came when I had my son with chickenpox, a knee problem, or when my teacher died and I was competing in the World Cup. As a young man I found balance in the places where I grew up, near Udine, between the forest and the sea. Growing up I discovered that my balance, as a woman, lasts 28 days. There are times when I’m hormonally knocked out and there’s no point in training. But we can’t talk about this in sport because we must always perform well. Finding a balance during the cycle is therefore the real challenge, as well as a taboo. We should talk about it instead. After giving birth, I suffered and asked for help. Even for mental health, as for periods, there is no need to be ashamed. Even to stay in balance, you need courage». Mara Navarria, former fencer (in the photo, ai 2023 FIE World Fencing Championships in Milan, Italy).

Fourth (i.e.: the dignity of fourth place)

«I call it “the dignity of the fourth” and President Sergio Mattarella demonstrated it to us after the 2024 Olympic Games. Breaking every pattern, he received at the Quirinale not only the three medalists but also those who had finished fourth. Among these was Benedetta Pilato (in the photo while she says she is “too happy” with her fourth place, ed.), excluded from the swimming podium by a hundredth of a second. The point is all there. You may have done your race wonderfully well, come third and take home a medal and financial prize. You can do the same performance though and not win anything: you will have learned the most important lesson, which is that not everything depends on you. It’s a shame that our performance society tends to ostracize not only fourth place, but also second place. Winning is beautiful but victory belongs to the best but also to the luckiest. Often those who come third are happier than second because they won against fourthwhile the latter lost to the former. It’s all relative. When we came third at the London Games beating Bulgaria, I was happy because I had played against the team coached by Camillo Placì, a man I still respect very much. We could have lost and for me the best memory of my career would have remained the same.” Mauro Berruto, former volleyball coach and politician.

Tears

«I wrote a novel some time ago about not being afraid to show emotions because for me tears are a universal language that surpasses all diversity. In sport, a context where the human aspect is separated from the duties of performance, tears are what ultimately allow us to express ourselves. Whether you win or lose. I am a Millennial and when I think about my upbringing there was no tear that wasn’t associated with tantrums. Today’s young people, however, know how to be more authentic and cry if necessary. There was a generational change, in the midst there was also an emotional education that conveyed an important message: you don’t just have to do your duty, you can also enjoy the journey without repressing yourself. On social media, however, I have seen girls cry for a book they loved and others for being made fun of. The comments, in both cases, were not nice. Maybe it would be useful now an education to respect the emotions of others. I edited the new re-edition of The Great Gatsby (Salani), I hope that reading the great classics helps to rediscover intimacy for tears of all ages.” Erin Doom, writer (pictured, Carey Mulligan is Daisy Buchanan in the film The Great Gatsby)

Snow

«I live in Asiago, it is winter and from the window I see almost all green meadows. On the other side of the valley there is a bit of white, a ridiculous amount of snow. It’s been like this for three years. When I was little, I always lived in snow for six months of the year. It is she who made this place famous for cross-country skiing trails. We are all nostalgic. Because the snow makes us feel like children with amazement. But above all it protects plants and animals. “Under the snow bread”, says a proverb. Under the snow, the fallen seeds freeze and the roots protect themselves. Even animals that do not hibernate find shelter in burrows. Snow is silence. The flake is water and air: that’s why the sounds are muffled. Contains life: insects such as springtails, leaves, fir seeds. Tell stories. The footprints left by foxes and hares show us escapes and routes. What is snow for me? My childhood game. It has almost disappeared but it will return, I don’t know how much.” Daniele Zovi, former director of the Forestry Corps and author of Snow autobiography (Utet)