"I slept on the street to become Italian" - Corriere.it

"I slept on the street to become Italian" - Corriere.it


Of Gaia Piccardi

Andy arrived from Cuba as a refugee, became Italian thanks to sporting merits: I saw my mother Milagros again after two years. Now I dream of the Paris 2024 Games

I miss the family from Cuba but not the problems of the island: it is impossible to become a great athlete, there. The day after the Italian record in the triple (17.75 m) at the Golden Gala which placed him on the map of our sport, Andy Diaz Hernandez in Tivoli: cheers for Greta Donato who competes in jumping at the Lazio regional championships, f
daughter of Fabrizio, Olympic bronze in London 2012 and double European gold in the superfine art ofhop-step-jump, the man who welcomed him after his defection from his country. Did you know Andy? No, I had competed against it at an indoor World Cup, stop. Fabrizio: Our eyes had met.

Now that their lives have also intertwined, the story of Andy is an Italian citizen since February 23rd last year following a resolution by the Council of Ministers on a proposal from the Minister of the Interior Piantedosi can be told for what it is: the rescue of a refugee with an accelerated procedure on sporting merits. When he won the Diamond League in the triple, Coni's proposal to the government made the difference – explains Donato -, human values ​​count before athletics. I had two options: turn my head or extend my hand.

But let's start from the beginning. At the Tokyo Games Diaz Hernandez, 27 years old, participates for Cuba: he gets hurt in training, he doesn't compete, but his presence as a Cuban passes on the record. On his way back from Japan, with a stopover in Spain, he leaves the team and comes to Italy. One day I receive a phone call via Instagram: hi Fabrizio, do you train me? In Livorno I welcomed a lost human being. Neither athletics nor sport: pure life. I inquired at the local police station, then Andy made the request for refugee protection in Rome. In via Patini 23, at the immigration office - continues the athlete -, sleeping on the sidewalk so as not to lose your place in line. I spoke Spanish, as a triple jumper I had been out for months but I found many respectable people who believed in me. Mei's Fidal, Malag's Coni, Donato's Fiamme Gialle: the chain started like this. In addition to training him, Donato went further: he also took him home: The idea came to Greta and Viola, my daughters; my wife Patrizia Spuri, a former athlete, shares my values. Not that we live in a palace, Andy too cumbersome, 191 cm by 90 kg, but we are huddling.

In Florence Andy took the record away from his guardian angel (Then I apologized to him...), he wrapped himself in the tricolor (How proud), he sent a kiss to mother Milagros who, as an Italian citizen, through family reunification was able to get from Cuba to Livorno (We hadn't seen each other for two years). Although he has a passport, to wear the national team shirt he lacks eligibility by World Athletics, which after a past of buying and selling passports in athletics has become more severe. But at the Golden Gala I saw Sebastian Coe, he knows I'm clear: he assured me that there won't be any problems Andy smiles. Seeing it in blue is only a matter of time: The dream of getting on the podium at the Paris 2024 Games but if I get eligibility in time for the World Cup in Budapest, I'll be ready.

A strong signal has arrived in Florence. Andy is a talent - says Donato, proud of the results of the Italian school of the triple -, he integrated, he studies, at the end of the month he will take an important exam in Italian. He lowers his eyes under the compliments: I was looking for freedom and happiness that I didn't have in Cuba. He found them among the grains of the sand hole, after three leaps in the dark.

June 4, 2023 (change June 4, 2023 | 07:19)



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