Myths and icons of Italian sport from the boom years to the new millennium

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“You come back to my mind… as beautiful as you are, maybe even more”, sang the timeless Lucio Battisti in a truly unforgettable song, which is the title of the book out today on newsstands with Il Sole 24 Ore. For those who have lived them, the equally indelible sporting stories of the champions who have in fact built the collective memory of Italian sport come back to mind. Real myths, professionals whose deeds have in some cases touched the level of the epic, points of reference for generations of enthusiasts, pride of Italy in the world.

The author of this volume, Dario Ceccarelli, longtime reporter, former voice of Radio 24 and sports signature of the Sole 24 Ore website, composes a beautiful and rich gallery, on whose pages this editorial project blossomed. An overview that starts from the post-war period and reaches the present day: from Happy Gimondi, great cycling champion born into a family of humble workers from Val Brembana, capable of imposing himself in the three main stage races and obtaining many successes during a long and successful career; to the queen of swimming Federico Pellegrinithe most extraordinary Italian athlete who has ever ventured into a tub full of water, but also able to capture the limelight like few others both in and out of the competition, with her sincere and decisive character.

The strong idea that runs through the whole book is, in reality, to tell a piece of the history of Italy, starting from the years of the economic boom up to the new millennium, through the events of these unforgettable protagonists of the sport. A way to remind, even to the younger ones who have not seen them at work, some charismatic figures who have deeply engraved in our imagination. In fact, each of them has left us a memory, a gesture, a way of speaking, which is now part of our culture and our history.

We begin, in fact, with Italy which, all together, performs the miracle of Reconstruction and its relaunch after the war, where sport has its fundamental symbolic value, also in cementing a society that a few years earlier had found itself torn apart by a terrible conflict, also experienced between compatriots. And here cycling takes the lion’s share, with Felice Gimondi, in fact, the son of a postwoman and a gravel unloader, but also with Vittorio Adorni, great on the pedals as well as among the first sportsmen to leave their mark on TV, thanks to the intuition of the legendary Sergio Zavoli, who will make him a protagonist of his “Process at the stage”. Among the heroic figures of the Boom there is also the Italian motorcycling ace James Augustinethe most titled rider in the history of the World Championship; Nino Welcomethe fantastic boxer who broke the ground in New York’s Madison Square Garden by beating the American Griffith in a legendary match; Walter Bonattilegend of mountaineering, who will also become a top-class writer, photographer and documentary filmmaker in his second life.

In the 1960s and 1970s, football would properly establish itself as the national sport, with three champions who branded that era: Sandro Mazzola, Gianni Rivera And Gigi Riva. Then comes the Italy of the eighties and nineties, which has the legs of Peter Mennea and of Sara Simeoni and skis on Alberto Tomba: an Italy that runs, that wants to forget the dark years of terrorism, that wants to be happy despite the anguish and violence. It can not miss in this gallery of portraits Marco Pantania myth among myths, because he died young and tragically after dominating world cycling and conquering all of Italy with his exploits.