The Italia Team greets Beijing 2022 with 17 medals. Malagò: "Record edition, expedition of 7 and a half"

A record edition, the second winter ever for the number of medals. On the closing day of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò and the Secretary General and Head of Mission, Carlo Mornati, at Casa Italia Beijing draw up an assessment of the Italian expedition to China. And the numbers smile at the Azzurri: Beijing 2022 is, in fact, the second edition ever thanks to the 17 medals won – 2 golds, 7 silvers and 8 bronzes -, a loot inferior only to that of Lillehammer 1994 (which was an edition played after a two-year period from the previous one and not after a four-year period). Compared to PyeongChang 2018, the Italia Team grew by 70% (in Korea there were 10 podiums): starting from a previous winter edition in double figures, there had never been such a wide growth, going to medal in two of the 4 new mixed specialties (the short track relay and the snowboard cross mix).

"The vote, in my opinion, is a 7 and a half: we were good. The Olympic preparation, the communication, the whole part of Casa Italia, the athletes. I have always said that we would win between 13 and 17 medals but no one can think that, when you win 17, only two are

gold – the comment of President Malagò -. A numerical reading could summarize that Italians are much better at winning medals than golds. It's a matter of cents, injuries, judgments, but it's something to think about. But from a quantitative point of view it remains a record shipment".

At a general level, compared to PyeongChang, among the large countries only Russia has grown more than Italy, while not even China, which competed at home, has managed to have a percentage growth like ours.

Of the 19 Italian medalists, the third largest number ever, 9 are athletes, 10 athletes. Even Beijing 2022, in fact, was once again an Olympics declined to the female with 52.94% of women's medals, 29.41% men and 17.65% mixed.

The medals come from seven regions, but of this ranking, dominated for the second consecutive edition by Lombardy, curiously the first four regions (almost 85% of all medals) are those that will give life to the next edition of Milan Cortina 2026: namely Lombardy, Veneto, the province of Bolzano and Trento.

With its 119 athletes (82 men and 47 women) the Italia Team has been on the podium in eight different disciplines: a fact that has never happened in history. Suffice it to say that in the most successful edition (Lillehammer 1994) Italy won medals in 'only' 5 disciplines. Better than the Azzurri in China have done only Russia, Canada and Norway with 9 disciplines. "It is clear that we are multidisciplinary like no one – continues the number one of Italian sport -. From the qualitative point of view of the medal table this may be an element of weakness, but under that of sports culture this is an added value that we have. We are multidisciplinary and eclectic. It is an element of great strength, of deep pride", adds Malagò.

And despite the growth of the countries that win gold (23 against 21 in PyeongChang), the medal countries decrease (29 against 30).

In seven months the world has played for the first time two Olympics (Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022), in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic and Italy in the sum of the medals won, with 57 podiums, is seventh behind the United States, China, Russia, Great Britain, Germany and Japan, while for disciplines went to medal, even third behind only the United States and Russia.

Mornati explains CONI's approach to these Games: "Organizationally it was the most difficult but the best organized Olympics – the words of the head of Olympic Preparation -. It is the first organized remotely and we have done everything respecting strict rules. We were the only committee out of 91 present to create Casa Italia, never officially defined as a hospitality house, here and in Yanqing. The contracts were only signed on 26 January and 29 January. At Casa Italia 2,400 of the 16,300 in the bubble passed through". Then Mornati focuses on the work done behind the scenes with the athletes.

"Of the 119 athletes present here, 65 passed directly into our Institute of Sports Science, as well as 14 of the 19 medalists. Among the eight disciplines in which we went medal out of 5 there was a greater impact with the Institute".

Many medals that correspond to a large prize to be paid to our champions. "We are talking about 2.3 million euros in prizes and almost half a million for our Olympic Club - says Mornati -. Of the 45 million euros that CONI receives every year as a public contribution, 12 and a half million are paid to the athletes of Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 through the awards and the Olympic Club". (photo Giuseppe Giugliano)

Some records to be framed of this five-circle edition: the FISI has grown by 50%, the FISG has even doubled with an absolute record of medals won (eight). At the level of athletes, however, Arianna Fontana, winner of a gold and two silvers, has become the most medaled female athlete in the history of Italian sport (summer and winter) and only two medals from Edoardo Mangiarotti who, however, compared to Arianna made 6 Olympics while Arianna for now has reached 5. Arianna also has the record of being the only woman at the Winter Olympics to have won medals in 5 consecutive editions (equaling armin Zoeggeler among the males); Dorothea Wierer with bronze in the sprint became the first Italian woman to win an individual medal at the Games in biathlon; Francesca Lollobrigida gave Italy the first women's medals in the history of speed skating. The gold of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner is the first ever medal won by Italy in curling at the Games; Omar Visintin won the first medal for Italy in men's snowboard cross; Federica Brignone, silver at 31 years and 208 days, is the oldest skier ever to win a medal in the Olympic giant slalom as well as being the first Italian ever on the Olympic podium in the specialty, in 86 years of history and the second Italian skier to get on the podium twice in an Olympics (after Deborah Compagnoni, Nagano 1998). Brignone is also the fifth Italian to win a medal in the same discipline at least twice (the others are Deborah Compagnoni, Gustav Thoeni, Isolde Kostner and Alberto Tomba, who reached three medals). A result obtained a few days later by Sofia Goggia, gold in PyeongChang2018 and silver in Beijing 2022, who is now the only Italian to have succeeded consecutively downhill: never had there been a podium in women's downhill at the Games with two blues. This is thanks to Goggia and Nadia Delago (the only previous female in the Super G of Salt Lake with Ceccarelli gold and Putzer bronze).

"The average age of the medalists is slightly higher than that of PyeongChang, we are in the number of 26 years. I think this is an excellent signal for Milan-Cortina 2026". And just looking at the Olympics at home, Malagò adds: "We dutifully requested a contribution to plan four years to me. In words for months every week is the good one to unblock the situation even if we are already late because we were already waiting for it between September and December. Here it is a matter of taking boys and girls aged 15 to 18 who must be for 4 years in a permanent withdrawal reasoning and need funding. Those who host the Olympics do much better, you play the joker because you are inside on all sides". The starting point is an edition that is already history: Beijing 2022.