Subheading: When sport takes pleasure in taking us by surprise! All this requires a brief foreword regarding facts in which I happened to be a slightly astonished witness, owing to the odd course of events. May 1999: I was in Trieste, on the premises of a local Tennis Club, in the role of a modest tennis player involved in a Second Division team match.
Although I was rather sleepy upon my arrival, I could not avoid noticing the presence of a familiar face, which however was not associated with the world of tennis. Gianmarco Pozzecco, basketball player who at the time played for Varese, gesticulated, clearly annoyed, making himself heard within a group of friends and supporters. To put you in the picture, “Poz” is one of the greatest basketball talents in our country. And at that time he was furious because the then basketball national coach, Bosha Tanjievic, had just left him out of the list of called-up members for the national team which was to take part in the approaching European championship. This had been a brave and debated choice, which however was to be shortly sensationally followed by the astounding Italian success in that very competition. Three years went past and we come to last August. In my editorial office, I happened to come across Maurizia Cacciatori, the strongest and most attractive setter in Italy, furious for an even more indigestible boycott. Among the 12 athletes selected for the world championship in Germany, she (the symbol of female volleyball) had not been included. However, this time the debates reported by the newspapers appeared even more diluted. Indeed, the decision of the national coach had faded a bit into the background, owing to the confusing situation affecting football, with the football season not starting and bankrupt teams. But as I was listening to the complaints of the ex-national team member, I immediately experienced a flashback I saw the Pozzecco case in the feminine, reoccurring three years later, but this time with a disturbing sentimental detail: Maurizia is the current girlfriend of the Fortitudo player! I maliciously thought to myself that a scornful fate might unite them in their exclusion and disappointment. “I bet it will turn out as for the 1999 European championship. The Italvolley girls will win the world championship”. An intriguing thought, which however was not that obvious, taking into account the predictions and the rivals’ skills. However, to my amazement, this is exactly what happened. This was an unprecedented deed in the history of the Women’s Movement, which now obliged the plurimedalled men’s world to have to rise to the occasion. As a matter of fact, only the unbeatable ex –USSR team succeed twice (in 1952 and in 1960) in extraordinarily winning the world championship. Let’s get back to the point, to the wonderful achievement that has favourably impressed us, and, as we do so, we realise, through an in-depth analysis, that our girls’ worldwide boom was not that unpredictable. At the root of a discipline which has already successfully conquered esteem and trainees in the men’s world, there are indeed major data which annually support and justify this growth phase. According to the data supplied by FIPAV, the Volleyball Federation, over the last season the number of very young girls (8-14 years age bracket) playing amateur volleyball has actually doubled. And in absolute terms, in Italy the female holders of membership cards weekly dividing their time between receiving the ball and spiking, top the list in women’s competitive sport. It is wonderful, natural and unavoidable that our country has only now discovered this winning aspect. Opening titles, sponsors and an extremely high audience rating, are a signal that the popularity inebriation has at last reached Togut and mates. As usual, in such cases, it is interesting to review the movement’s growth stages, in particular, by dusting off certain aspects that, in the present position as rewarded and successful professionals, the girls who are part of the Italian national team will certainly not forget. Indeed, female volleyball belongs to a typically Italian social background, comprising stories that are halfway between homemade and professional. It includes very early Sunday risings in cars packed with people, with a packet of sandwiches and mineral water prepared by family members. It includes gloomy and cold sports halls, with surfaces made slippery because of wear, where taking one’s courage in both hands meant diving to catch the ball and turning up at school the next day covered in bruises and pains in the joints. And whenever the shower did not prove freezing cold, it either meant that adrenalin from a hard-fought victory was still in circulation, or that sweet male colleagues were to play the following match. Busses or trains to make friends or save on costs, depending on the distance to be covered. They obviously played to have fun, but what’s most important, with no financial reward whatsoever, even at a professional level, starting with the women’s national team itself, for whom the budgeted cost reimbursement was ridiculously low, although offset by the pride of being able to represent their country. And now that they stand on the “roof of the world”, Bonitta’s women do not feel as if they may lose their humble attitude. You hear their words broadcasted through a number of media, on TV and during specific programmes, in this storm of interviews that will soon pass from their hands to others’. But the feeling that the humble origins of their moment have not been forgotten especially transpires through the fancies expressed following the victory. One thinks of a longed-for holiday, one of a flat to at least achieve her independence. And one may mention a slightly trendy car, differing from the economy car constantly displayed during training. This applies for instance in the case of Francesca Piccinini, second sought-after beauty within the group, who of course, after M. Cacciatori’s forced default, has ascended by one position in this hypothetical classification. She had agreed with here boyfriend that she would get a prize only in the event of victory. No consolation prizes; only one, a major one, as world champion. To cut a long story short, we shall have to wait and see how the almost 2 metre stature of the 23-year-old spiker will adapt to the interior of her new Mini.

Translated by interpres sas

Photo by Fiorenzo Galbiati