Three years of challenges for San Marino before the Paris Olympics

Oui, Paris! There are 3 years left to the next Olympics, for the Titan 3 years of challenges!

We are the orphans of the Olympic Games, those who don’t even turn on the TV in the summer if there isn’t any badminton to follow. Those who rejoice without understanding a club of the discipline they are following and who are excited for synchronized swimming, which is now artistic swimming, one of those sports of which, we will not know anything until the next Olympics.

The good news is that this time the Olympics are only three years away, the bad news is that in this sick and sick world it is difficult to know what will happen in the next 15 days and therefore planning the summer of 2024 is in itself half madness. .

Paris received the five-circle flag, the French capital is ready to host its third Olympics from 26 to 11 August. The French “squeak” and announce: everything is ready. In reality, although the city is accustomed to organizing large events, there is still 70% of structures to be built, rebuilt, modernized and adapted, including the Olympic Village which will be built at the Ile de Saint Denis.

What arrives for San Marino sport will be an “exaggerated” three-year period, we can swear that on the wave of the historic medals of Tokyo, sporting activity will return to the center of attention of the country and that, carried away by the Biancazzurri successes, many young people and very young people get to work to pursue the dream of a lifetime.

What three years awaits us? What can we imagine happening?

First we need to think about the 5 standard bearers of Tokyo, the multi-medaled shooters Alessandra Perilli and Gian Marco Berti, as well as the wrestler Myles Nazem Amine Mularoni, will continue to work hard to chase the “encore” or in any case to be still protagonists. Arianna Valloni, in swimming, has a sort of preferential lane to obtain without too much difficulty what was once called “wild card” and which is now an “invitation from the organization and the commission to guarantee the universality of the Games”. However, what could happen is that the young woman from San Marino wants to evaluate a different experience, namely that of “open water” or bottom swimming. Also in this case it could point to an invitation in case the minimums do not arrive. More or less the same should happen to Paolo Persoglia who, in consideration of the long process and the high results necessary to qualify in judo, should aim to remain at the top in terms of international participation and competitions and then ask for an invitation through the CONS.

And besides the already well-known Tokyo boys, who could wear the blue and white uniform in Paris? First hypothesis, someone in athletics. Practically only in Tokyo was a standard bearer of the “queen” specialty missing, while in the past there has always been a San Marino player at the start of the discipline. The sprinter Alessandra Gasparelli is very young but she is a valid candidate, Andrea Ercolani Volta may have lost the right lap this year but he is the other man to bet on. In swimming, known as della Valloni, we will have to wait for Los Angeles 2028 to have a really ready athlete and then we could aim for the artistic with the Verbena-Zonzini synchronettes very close to the minimum necessary already before Tokyo and very launched towards Paris.

In the meantime, the elections for the new CONS Executive Committee scheduled for next March are also worth noting.

In taekwondo the name of Michele Ceccaroni is always valid, but he will have to hold on at high levels for another three years and then hope for an invitation given how difficult it is to obtain the minimum qualifications in that discipline.

And if in Tokyo the Republic of San Marino discovered the fight in Paris it could even name it as a national discipline with Myles Amine Mularoni competing to defend and if possible improve the Japanese bronze and his brother Malik to make his way with him. The younger of the two brothers is in fact climbing the world rankings.

There was a name that a few years ago was given among the big names in San Marino sport, then the study took it far and the commitment dropped a little, but today, the scores say that it is returning to the top and if how It is well known that San Marino people with a gun in hand know how to win so much it is not forbidden to dream of seeing her in Paris: the shooter Agata Alina Riccardi.

From London 2012 to Paris 2024, Federarco has worked hard to create a successor to Emanuele Guidi but at the moment it is difficult to understand if there is anyone who could be in a position to ask for an invitation to that specialty.

In the meantime, it is also reasonable to expect some surprises from athletes who today may not have the necessary caliber to participate in the Olympics but who, in the next three years, will be able to grow and compete at high levels. Some more information, in this regard, could be given by the international sporting events scheduled, the Mediterranean Games in Oran (25 June – 5 July 2022), the Games of the Small States of Malta 2023 and above all the European Games in Krakow. of summer 2023.

ALAN GASPERONI