Swimming, athletics, fencing and more. An investigation into Formula Italia, which takes us to the top of the world

This is what ‘Formula Italia’ has come to. When we run, jump, swim and dive, we’re the best in Europe and often in the world. When it comes to fencing, no one can beat us. Now we even have the world number one in tennis and the leader of the Formula 1 World Championship. All Italians, young, good-looking and likeable too. Who wouldn’t want a child like Sara Curtis, Jannik Sinner or Kimi Antonelli – three twenty-somethings who are turning the world on its head by proving they can play with words as well as with the equipment of their sports. Sara even spoke about this with President Mattarella on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic, when she was among the ten young people selected for an interview with the Head of State. It’s becoming a pleasant tradition. We’re racking up medals at the Summer and Winter Games, and when summers like this one come around – with no Olympic Games on the horizon – we carry on the celebrations with the European and World Championships.

We’ve become masters of flag football too, securing qualification for Los Angeles 2028. It’s a form of football without tackles; it seems like yet another unconventional idea from the sports business, but then you see it listed among the Olympic disciplines and read that even Marcell Jacobs (the only Italian to have failed to make the cut in Birmingham) would like to play it, so you take this result on board as well. First we topped the medal table at the World Fencing Championships, then we did the same at the European Athletics Championships, beating the British by the very last centimetre of the final race. ‘On their home turf,’ shout the commentators. And yes, right on their home turf, after we’d dominated on our own two years ago. We’ve also come away with a full haul in the pool and in the murky waters of the Seine: 43 medals across open water, diving and swimming. Second only to the British this time round. In this hot summer of fencing, athletics and swimming, we’ve brought home 73 medals. And the national volleyball and women’s basketball teams have yet to take to the court. In short, it’s not over yet.

During the summer of the World Cup, where we failed to qualify for the third time in a row, we still managed to enjoy ourselves. We can do everything, but we no longer excel at the sports in which we were once masters. Football, of course, but also cycling and boxing, where we can no longer produce a true champion. On the other hand, we have three Italians among the world’s top 15 tennis players and, for the first time in 73 years, we could have an Italian Formula 1 world champion. The new president of CONI, Luciano Buonfiglio, even before the summer’s harvest, had said: “The results of Italian sport are no miracle, but the fruit of the work of the federation presidents, the federations themselves and a systematic approach.” This is confirmed by the fact that whilst CONI presidents come and go, the results endure. Sport is still largely absent from schools, but it is becoming woven into the fabric of Italian society thanks to sports clubs and the voluntary efforts of parents and managers who keep it running. Today, the examples to look up to and follow are the young men and women who are achieving so much success this summer. Young and not-so-young – for we must not forget Gianmarco Tamberi, Simona Quadarella or Arianna Errigo. We are winning with those in their twenties, but also with those who left their twenties behind long ago. We have the present and the future. And a trend that shows no sign of ending: according to the latest figures released by Sport & Salute, among the top seven Italian federations, football is the only one to have lost active members.

One of the first tasks facing the new president of the Italian Football Federation – a man who knows the sport better than anyone else – will be to understand why young boys and girls are turning their backs on football, and why what was once the dream job – even more so than being an astronaut – has slipped to third or fourth place in their preferences. Football kicks off again on Saturday; Serie A is already raring to go, and we shouldn’t be surprised if one of the three sports newspapers still on the newsstands chooses to run a headline about Juventus’ new goalkeeper rather than the national team’s exploits. We have the results and the young players, but perhaps we’re still lacking a bit of culture.