Italy is once again a protagonist at the Paris Paralympics, where it currently occupies fifth place in the medal table, with a total of 63 (20 golds, 13 silvers, 30 bronzes) behind China, Great Britain, the USA and Holland, surprising here as it had been at the Olympics.
The Azzurri today won 4 golds, with Legnante in athletics, Barlaam in swimming and Parenzan and Rossi in table tennis, and from this point of view the Italian Team has already done better than three years ago in Tokyo, where there were 14 golds against the 20 (with two days to go) of this edition. Now the record that the entire Cip expedition aspires to seems within reach, that is, to improve on the overall result of 69 medals set in Japan (only Rome was better, with 80 overall, but only 400 athletes participated).
Six are missing from the count, because at this moment Italy is in fact at 63 (20 golds, 13 silvers and 30 bronzes) but with two days of competition still available, and given the competitiveness of the Italians, we have to believe. All this taking into account the context of the Paralympics, in which the medals are, in general, absolutely more than at the Olympics because there are more categories in which people compete in the various disciplines, while the participation of the various countries is less. But this is also a growing figure: in the final medal table of the Paris Games there were 91 countries, including the Refugees team, while in the partial one of this Paralympics there are already 83 (always including the Refugees): so we are almost there.
Returning to Italy, today’s count also includes the silver medals of Antonio Fantin and Stefano Raimondi (his fourth personal podium) in swimming and the bronze medals of Carlotta Ragazzini in table tennis and Donato Telesca in weightlifting, with the closing bronze medal in swimming by Alberto Amodeo in the 100 freestyle S8. All this confirms, even at the Paralympic level, a general trend in Italian sport that emerged at the Paris Games and even before in the various qualifications, namely that Italy is capable of doing well, and obtaining great results, in almost every discipline. In short, the Italian team is a versatile one, and this is why it is now legitimate to hope to beat the Tokyo record.
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