To the EPYG 2022 (European Para Youth Games) staged from June 27 to July 4 in Pajilahti ed Helsinki (Finland), the Italian Paralympic movement has shown once again (practically the umpteenth) that it has a sporting battleship on all fronts.
After the incredible international successes of the Paralympics in Tokyo 2021after the historical results obtained at ai Beijing Winter Games 2022 and after confirmation of the Italian Paralympic swimming as World Championeven the young athletes of our country return home with a sporting booty to be framed.
European Para Youth Games (EPYG) 2022: from which sports the medals came
They are well 42 medals (13 golds, 14 silvers, 15 bronzes) conquered by the young Paralympic Italy, on the field with 61 athletes, which allowed our National team to conquer the third place overall, behind only the 53 medals of Spain (23 golds, 20 silvers, 10 bronzes) and to 47 in France (17 golds, 16 silvers, 14 bronzes).
The highest number of medals has arrived from athletics (4 golds, 5 silvers and 3 bronzes) and from table tennis (3 golds, 3 silvers and 6 bronzes). Great achievements also for the I swim, diamond discipline for our country, with 3 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes. In the judo we get 2 golds and 1 silver, while in the bowl 2 silver and 1 bronze. Instead give it showdown 2 bronzes arrive. In the end historic medal won by wheelchair basketball: the Azzurra team won gold by beating Holland in the final by 45 to 41. Below is the final classification:
- 1. Spain 23 golds – 20 silvers – 10 bronzes
- 2. France 17 – 16 – 14
- 3. Italia 13 – 14 – 15
- 4. Croatia 10 – 1 – 5
- 5. Germania 8 – 3 – 5
- 6. Portugal 8 – 2 – 3
- 7. Poland 7 – 5 – 4
- 8. Czech Republic 5 – 6 – 3
- 9. Norway 5 – 6 – 2
- 10. Belgium 4 – 5 – 4
- 11. Finland 2 – 5 – 4
- 12. Hungary 2 – 2 – 2
- 13. Sweden 2 – 1 – 3
- 14. Romania 2 – 0 – 0
- 15. Slovakia 1 – 2 – 1
- 16. Estonia 1 – 2 – 0
- 17. Bulgaria 1 – 1 – 2
- 18. Israel 1 – 1 – 0
- 19. Turkey 1 – 0 – 0
- 20. Greece 0 – 4 – 0
- 21. Great Britain 0 – 2 – 4
- 22. Denmark 0 – 2 – 2
- 23. Netherlands 0 – 1 – 0
- 24. Lithuania 0 – 0 – 2
- 24. Slovenia 0 – 0 – 2
- 24. Iceland 0 – 0 – 2
- 27. Montenegro 0 – 0 – 1
EPYG, Luca Pancalli: “A new generation of champions is growing”
Il president of the Italian Paralympic Committee Luca Pancalli speaks of “an exceptional result”, as stated in the CIP note, which projects Italy “among the first three European countries in Paralympic youth sport. A balance sheet that fills us with satisfaction and makes us look to the future with optimism “. Thanks to this result, in fact, the Belpaese proves to have one new generation of champions that “it is growing in the best way and will be able to make its own contribution to the Paralympic challenges to come”.
In our recent interview, Pancalli himself underlined the importance of the European Para Youth Games, born from an intuition of the current president of the CIP, also explaining to us the intrinsic value behind this review: “Starting from the personal Italian experience, which was to see a few young people and children and to see a few families who bring their disabled children to a choice of sporting path, we invented this sort of youth games”, with the aim of “To set in motion something contaminating, which could contaminate the countries of our community and mutually infect the children from this community experience”.
What are the European Para Youth Games?
The EPYGs were born in 2011 and call upon numerous European athletes between the ages of 12 and 23 not only to cultivate any Paralympic champions, but also to give the very young and young people with disabilities the opportunity to get involved in a sporting practice. To date, the European Para Youth Games have six editions: 2011 a Brno (Czech Republic); 2012 a Varadzin (Croatia); 2015 to Genova (Italy); 2017 to Savona (Italy); 2019 to Willow bay (Finland); 2022 a Willow bay (Finland).
