The European Swimming and Diving Championships crowned the Piedmontese and Lazio athletes with a series of time-tested and medal-winning records. The Foreign Minister immediately named them ambassadors of sports diplomacy. Women's fans are now looking to the national volleyball team, assembled by the guru Velasco, while they await Roberto Mancini's men's team's inaugural journey to the rebirth of a football team that ended in the hell of a third failed World Cup qualification.
Luckily there are women!
In life as in sport, especially if the latter is framed from the deck of a boat that struggles to find the ideal direction in football, cycling, basketball: in team sports in general.
In terms of individual performance, Italy has set milestones in the history of various disciplines, especially thanks to the women.
Over time, Alfonsina Strada stood out, registering as "Alfonso" in the 1924 Giro d'Italia and remaining the only one to have fully competed with and against men in cycling, which is increasingly specializing and widening the gap between men and women. A hundred years later, Tadej Pogacar would lead his female counterpart, Demi Vollering, by hours and hours, or even days, at the finish line of a three-week Tour de France, something that doesn't even exist. So far, parity has only been achieved in a few circumstances, with prize money being involved.
In our various treks around the world, following top-level events, we found ourselves drawn to Sara Simeoni and Gabriella Dorio in athletics before, during, and after the 1984 Los Angeles Games; to Federica Pellegrini in swimming; to Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani in tennis; to Stefania Belmondo, Manuela Di Centa, and Deborah Compagnoni before the explosion of Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone in the mid-2020s on the slopes of half the world, leading up to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics…
And in the worst summer for the Italian national football team, the triumphs of volleyball forged by Julio Velasco have become wonderfully polarizing even to the general public, the faces of Italy that advance thanks to the phenomenal Sara Curtis, with double gold and a world record in the 50-meter backstroke anthology in the Paris pool after the thrilling performances of Chiara Pellacani, capable of collecting no less than five medals of the most precious coin in a single edition of the European Aquatics Championships.
Google helps us with the most explanatory summary of Chiara's performance:
• Individual 3m Springboard: Gold medal by dominating the final with 358.05 points.
• Individual 1m springboard: gold medal.
• Synchronized 3-meter springboard: gold medal won in tandem with partner Elisa Pizzini.
• Mixed team event (Team Event): inaugural gold medal, won together with her Italian teammates (including Sarah Jodoin di Maria and Raffaele Pelligra) beating the neutral athletes.
• 3m Mixed Synchronized Springboard: fifth overall gold of his incredible Parisian expedition.
Thanks. Full stop.
The stories of both queens of our summer are special stories.
Sara Curtis, a freestyle specialist from Savigliano, Piedmont, has also improved significantly in her backstroke, becoming the queen of the pools with 50+ medals in various distances, both individual and team. Daughter of Vincenzo (Italian), who was moved to tears, and Helen Osajiuwu (Nigerian), who danced wildly in the stands after her second gold medal, she is the worthy heir to Dorio in the middle distance. Together, they will celebrate the twentieth birthday of the "little one," who in Paris was still nineteen when she became the first Italian to win the 100-meter freestyle and when she improved the world record for the 50-meter backstroke from 26.63 to 26.56. She is the new Federica Pellegrini.
As of August 14, 2026, Chiara Pellacani, a Lazio native from Rome, has amassed a haul of around forty medals across the elite and youth European Championships, as well as other international tournaments. Already a standout as a "baby," Chiara—born in 2002—was shepherded by her father, Paolo, a sports reporter, to Florida, where she graduated in psychology from the University of Miami and honed her diving skills, which she had highlighted over a decade with the Italian national team and in a dozen international tournaments.
All disciplines that crown you with a gold medal become noble. This also happens with diving, which Chiara has brought even more to the heart of the collective imagination, prompting Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, to elect her, along with Sara Curtis, to the rank of ambassadors of sports diplomacy, about a month before National Sports Day, scheduled for September 14th at every latitude thanks to embassies and consulates around the world.
It's truly remarkable how politicians capitalize on the successes of Italian sport, even if they don't address the serious issues surrounding the physical and athletic health of young Italians.
While we wait for Yannik Sinner to return to being the Sinner we've grown so accustomed to on the grass, clay, or hard tennis courts, and for Roberto Mancini to usher in a new era for the national team, which has suffered its third consecutive World Cup qualification flop, let's open the window of our emotions and let in the fresh air of women's volleyball—coincidentally...—which is looking ahead to the continental tournament scheduled for August 21st to September 6th, but which is already in everyone's homes thanks to the commercial filmed with the demiurge Velasco.
While we wait to raise our glasses once again thanks to the women of Italian sport, let's take a look at the new rosters for the top-flight soccer championship, which is restarting in pursuit of Inter...
Ad maiora.
