Paralympics: 20 golds for Italy, aiming for Tokyo record

Italy is still a protagonist at the Paralympics in Paris, where it occupies, for now, the fifth place in the medals table, with a total of 63 (20 golds, 13 silvers, 30 bronzes) behind China, Great Britain, the USA and the Netherlands, as surprising here as it was at the Olympics. The Azzurri won four golds today, with Legnante in athletics, Barlaam in swimming and Parenzan and Rossi in table tennis, and in this respect the Italian team has already done better than three years ago in Tokyo, where there were 14 golds compared to 20 (with two days to go) in this edition.

Now the record to which the entire expedition aspires seems within reach, that of improving the overall result of 69 medals set in Japan (only Rome was better, with a total of 80, but only 400 participating athletes). Six are missing from the count, because right now Italy is at 63 (20 gold, 13 silver and 30 bronze medals) but with two days of competition still available, and given the competitiveness of the Azzurri, we must believe in it. All this taking into account the context of the Paralympics, in which the medals are, in general, more than at the Olympics because there are more categories in which they compete in the various disciplines, while the participation of the various countries is lower.

But this is also a growing figure: in the final medal table of the Paris Games there were 91 countries, including the Refugee team, while in the partial medal table of this Paralympics there are already 83 (again including Refugees): so we are almost there. Returning to Italy, today's count also includes the silver medals of Antonio Fantin and Stefano Raimondi (on his fourth personal podium) in swimming and the bronze medals of Carlotta Ragazzini in table tennis and Donato Telesca in weightlifting, with the bronze medal in swimming won by Alberto Amodeo in the 100 S8 style.

And all this confirms, even at Paralympic level, a general trend in Italian sport that had already emerged at the Paris Games and even earlier in the various qualifiers, namely that Italy is able to do well, and achieve great results, in almost every discipline. In short, the Italian team is a polyvalent team, which is why it is now legitimate to hope to beat the Tokyo record.