Revisiting and rewriting the history of race walking in Italy, both male and female, was certainly not a walk in a Finnish forest on a path strewn with rose petals.
One hundred eight years of history with names, even the lesser known ones, which have contributed to the successes of this specialty that can rightfully boast of being the most medal of the Italian athletics.
We thank Sandro Damilano who has taken on this burden that has recently committed him to the full.
The work was divided considering the medals won by the Italian race walk in all international competitions.
The competitions considered were eighteen:
- the five major ones: Olympics, World Championships, European Championships, World Cup (today Race Walking team World Championship) and U20 World Cup (today U20 Race walking Team World Championship)
- the fourteen minors: European Cup, Universiade, Mediterranean Games, U23 Mediterranean Championships, Youth Olympic Games, U20 World and European Championships, U18 World and European Championships and finally the World and European Indoor Championships whose last edition was that of 1994.
For the World Cup (now Team Walking World Championship) the medals were divided into individual medals and team medals.
The division between men and women was then made, finally the medals were counted for a decade and also here divided between males and females.
A huge work that goes into the detail and the heart of why race walking was so successful in Italy.
Some considerations are a must:
The specialty of race walkin in Italy has won in these 107 years (1912 - 2019) 234 medals with an average of 2,18 medals every year (without taking into account the period of inactivity due to the 2 world wars).
Men won 147 medals (average 1,3 per year).
The women who started international activity since 1980 (39 years ago), have won 87 medals (average 2.2 per year).
In the statistics ( PDF: click here ) on the total medals and by decade and in the one on the medals won by each individual athlete it is possible to observe how the great names of our race walk have significantly affected and how through the medals won we can trace the history of the walk in Italy.
In the number of medals won by each individual athlete ( PDF: click here ), of course, the number of international events in which they competed in that period must be taken into account.
In any case, we see how in the first places there are some of the greatest exponents of our heel and toe.
Maurizio Damilano leads the ranking with 15 medals followed by Abdon Pamich (11) and Annarita Sidoti (11). A podium certainly of great depth and which has had a notable impact on an international level. We must not forget the names that follow these 3 monument-athletes. All athletes who have profoundly marked their period in the world and for some of them the path is only just beginning.
From the statistics on the total medals in the major events divided by decade we can draw the following indications:
Until 1950 the 6 medals were due only to 3 great athletes: Frigerio (4) - Altimani (1) and Rivolta (1).
In the decade 1950/60 the legendary Giuseppe Dordoni came into the limelight and contributed almost totally to the Italic basket.
Same goes for the decade 1960/70 where the medals are due in particular to the legendary Abdon Pamich.
The decade of the 70s, lived on the Italian confrontation Visini / Zambaldo, is poor in international medals. The successes achieved were almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Games.
The decade of the 80s begins with the great Olympic success of a fantastic Maurizio Damilano who will contribute significantly to the good basket of these 10 years.
In this period the era of women's walk begins and Italian girls immediately distinguish themselves internationally with some success, especially indoors, by Giuliana Salce and Ileana Salvador.
The 90s also began with an important success. The wonderful Annarita Sidoti wins the gold medal at the European Championships in Split. This is the decade with the highest number of medals obtained (albeit only 4 medals over the following decade) and it is also the decade in which girls have made a greater contribution than men in terms of medals won. It is the period of the great women's team composed not only by Annarita Sidoti, but also by Elisabetta Perrone; Erika Alfridi and Rossella Giordano who managed to counter and overtake the Russian squadron several times.
In men, the brilliant performances of Giovanni De Benedictis should be emphasized; Gianni Perricelli and Michele Didoni.
With the beginning of the new century, the Italian march continues to obtain great recognition.
It is the decade in which 2 Olympic gold medals were obtained with Ivano Brugnetti in Athens and Alex Schwazer in Beijing.
In the women, in the early years Alfridi and Perrone still put themselves to the attention, leaving the baton to Elisa Rigaudo.
Towards the end of the period, Antonella Palmisano and Eleonora Giorgi appeared in the limelight and together with Massimo Stano ang Giorgio Rubino, in men, have been holding up the Italian tricolor flag in the last decade. However, this period is marked by an interesting number of medals obtained in the youth field.