Italian sport: an era of success that went beyond football
To understand the evolution of Italian sport over the last twenty years, we must start with an apparent paradox: whilst football – which has always been the driving force behind the national sport system – is going through one of the deepest crises in its history, Italian sport as a whole is enjoying increasingly successful seasons.
In 2006, Italia won the World Cup in Germany. It seemed to mark the start of a new phase of growth. In reality, it was the beginning of a slow decline. Outdated stadiums, fragmented governance, a loss of international competitiveness among clubs, and reduced investment in youth academies have gradually eroded the standing of Italian football, which nevertheless remains the most widely played sport in the country. Fortunately, other sports have begun to enjoy success, filling the void and initiating the transition from an almost monocultural model to a more diverse ecosystem.
The Olympic results illustrate this transformation better than any analysis. At Beijing 2008, Italia finished with 27 medals; at London 2012 with 28; and at Rio 2016 with 28. Then came the quantum leap. At Tokyo 2021, the Italian team won a record-breaking 40 medals, a feat repeated at Paris 2024. At the same time, winter sports have also consolidated their competitiveness, rising from 10 medals at Turin 2006 to 17 at Beijing 2022, and on to 30 at Milan-Cortina.
Behind these successes lies a structure that is in many ways similar to that of the finest ‘Made in Italy’ products, based on industrial clusters: indeed, the national sport also thrives thanks to genuine ‘sports clusters’, even if these are not always geographically defined.
Tennis provides the most obvious example. Jannik Sinner’s rise to prominence stems from a system that, over the last twenty years, has invested in clubs, technical training and national programme development. The same applies to athletics, which has succeeded in building a system capable of producing Olympic and world champions in disciplines ranging from sprinting to high jump and race walking.
