Between the Seine and the podium: the Italians waiting at the start of Paris 2024

Paris - "Unfortunately, I will not be able to take part in the opening ceremony, so as not to get too tired in view of the commitment on the piste that awaits me already tomorrow morning, but being Arianna's roommate, I will help her get ready and make up, and I have already told her that we will all be watching her on TV and we will not fail to support her!" The words that Rossella Fiamingo, the 33-year-old from Catania, one of the sharpest blades in Italian fencing (a multiple medallist in epee, where she was individual silver medallist at Rio 2016 and team bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020) dedicates to her roommate and Italian flag-bearer Arianna Errigo give a good idea of the atmosphere in the Italian expedition just a few hours before the official start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Those who will be there - such as Errigo and Gimbo Tamberi, our two flag bearers - as well as the entire country, will also represent those who will be unable to attend the ceremony that will have the real protagonists in the boats that will ply the Seine, due to upcoming competitive commitments already in the early hours of Saturday morning. And so those who will not be there (about half of the 402 Azzurri present at the Games) will be cheering in front of the TV in the Olympic Village, ready to unload the adrenalin (and a pinch of regret) accumulated in the armchair in front of the screen onto the pitch.

Yes, because if the rest of the Olympic and media world is looking at the spectacle coming up tonight, and the organisational and logistical risks involved, they, the athletes, are mainly thinking about the five-circle challenges now imminent. You can sense it by meeting their looks and attitudes as you walk along the colourful streets of the Olympic Village, or by interviewing them now just a few hours before the start of the competition. "The difference with Tokyo? Certainly the presence of the public, which was absent three years ago in Japan because of Covid and which we will now find even more numerous at the finals, is a not insignificant aspect,' emphasises 27-year-old Savona-born Chiara Rebagliati, the first Italian to compete yesterday in the archery ranking round, 'but this time I really want to enjoy the excitement of the opening ceremony, which will finally be in full Olympic style. Thomas Ceccon, on the other hand, spearhead of our swimming expedition and also forced by the calendar to forego the prestigious catwalk on the Seine, is clinging to the emotion he felt at the Village when meeting the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella: "I found him at lunch just a few chairs away from me, and it was a very strong emotion,' says the 23-year-old from Veneto, already silver medallist in the 4x100 sl and bronze medallist in the 4x100 mixed in Tokyo, and two-time world champion in the 50 butterfly and 100 backstroke, a race in which he also holds the world record: we joked that his visit had forced us to change our morning schedule a bit, but to have visits like his during the Games, because of the strength of what he represents and the enthusiasm he conveyed to all of us!"

Below the net, however, many veterans of five-ring adventures. Of course Fefé De Giorgi is, helmsman of the men's Italvolley team, which - like the women's team led by Julio Velasco, the demiurge of the Generation of Phenomena of which Fefé was a member and which always missed out on Olympic gold - is among the favourites this time too. 'With Julio we talk often, even yesterday morning, and we both said we were surprised to find ourselves together, in this role, at this point in our lives and careers! But in the meantime we will try to enjoy this ceremony, even if our heads are already on Brazil, which awaits us on Monday for an Olympic debut that couldn't be more challenging. And Brazil is already on the mind of the Italian setter and captain, Simone Giannelli, who at 27 years of age is at his third Olympics and who already has the bittersweet silver medal won in the 2016 final in Rio de Janeiro against the green-goldenoro: "We are here to write another story, our own," he says in clear and unequivocal words, "the rest, from the champions of previous generations to the victories or defeats we have achieved, is already water behind us. Already tonight, in the billows of the Seine, there is a chance to find the right course towards the podium in Paris.