Maria and Bruno

PIZZUL Bruno Pizzul, a great colleague, has a "very beautiful" past. He grew up in Catholic Action and began kicking a ball around in the youth center. In 2002, on "Maria con te," he revealed that he had always had a special interest in Marian devotion. When he was four, his mother, unable to find the figurine of Jesus for the nativity scene, discovered that Bruno had put it in the oven to keep him warm. DEVOTED

VELASCO Julio Velasco, as well as coach of the women's national volleyball team, is a formidable motivator. He brought a message similar to the Jubilee of Hope. Yes, because hope means thinking positively: "If I had denounced the fact that physical education is so lacking in Italy, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere. It's much better to focus immediately on changing the mentality of female athletes, eliminating pessimism." OPTIMISM

BRIGNONE Sport is a woman, if you consider that, in the last Olympics, seven gold medals were won by female athletes. It's a long wave that starts in the summer and arrives in the winter, with the daring feats of Federica Brignone, winner of the Ski World Cup. It seems that competitive activity is in tune with the growing affirmation, everywhere, of women. They often demonstrate not only their equal, but their superiority to men. FANTASTIC

TEBOGO The 200-meter gold medalist in Paris, Letsille Tebogo, a Botswanan sprinter, was received by the Pope. The fifth-fastest athlete ever, with a time of 19.46, expressed a wish to the Pontiff: to be able to influence the planning of the Olympic Games in Africa. Tebogo, rightly, said that this would be essential to introducing the cultures of his continent to the world. PROACTIVE

GAMBA Ezio Gamba is a judo legend. He has won many victories, and then helped both the Italians and the Russians win. After 16 years, he has just returned to his roots, namely Forza e Costanza in Brescia, where his rise began. Well before the war, Putin provided him with a passport in Russia as a gesture of gratitude for his work. And he even coached Russians and Ukrainians together, something that, unfortunately, is unthinkable today. But back then, sport united. AGGREGATOR

LARISSA It's a family matter: Larissa Iapichino won the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn with a leap of 6.94 meters, 3 centimeters more than her mother, Fiona May, at the European Championships in Valencia 27 years ago. But she's already looking beyond the end of her career, and it's a credit to her to plan a future as a lawyer, with a focus on athletes' rights. This too, faced with so many barriers, will be a truly long leap, and perhaps the most significant. PALADINA

BOGGIONI She's 26 years old, a famous Paralympic swimming champion, both breaststroke and freestyle, and a champion in life choices. Monica Boggioni, in fact, has decided to study rare genetic diseases so that no more children will suffer from them without an explanation, as she did. It's a way of approaching, rather than distancing, one's destiny, with an altruistic, not destructive, attitude. WARRIOR


NP April 2025
Carlo Nesti