The most beautiful day

When sport cancels cultural, economic and social distances

Awa and Yasmine get into the van and exchange (eat) snacks, chat about this and that, hoping to get out of the city traffic early at five in the afternoon and ask themselves the very simple question that can only come out of a child's heart, but that perhaps we would do well to do all of us, wondering what is the best day of their week.

They immediately agree on Tuesday and from the back seats come choruses and shouts of approval: it is the day in which a group of girls have been crossing the city for almost a year, leaving behind the gray asphalt, concrete and smog to reach the beautiful gym where feet and hands come off the ground, making them elegant inhabitants of the sky, walking in suspension on a beam, spinning in the air first with a wheel and then with a somersault, clinging with all their strength to the parallels.

They train together with dozens of other children and teenagers, at the Tiger Academy gym, a super-equipped facility for artistic gymnastics that has been recognized by CONI: there are those who prepare for the national championships by making dreams of a five-a-side medal circles and then there are them, waiting to become very good, tumble again on the ground trying to make a wheel and burst out laughing at their ruinous fall. The project is funded by CNH Industrial and Case IH Agriculture and allows a group of about fifteen girls and preteens living in the most multi-ethnic district of the city of Turin to train and have fun side by side with the young athletes who usually attend the gym . They have the same leotard and the same Tiger-branded sports outfit, they jump and run inside the place that looks like a paradise for every child, where there is no trace of the economic, social and cultural differences that would condemn them to the gray of the neighborhood in which they are. born and raised and from which they practically never leave.

There are workouts every week, the small goals that can be reached by increasing self-esteem and making even those who are used to always being among those who cannot and do not understand feel good, the trips in the van where shoes and shoes disappear for a joke. returning home in the evening, stories of fears are told that frighten above all the little narrator, but the project also gave the girls special moments, experiences and adventures: the exciting meeting with the Olympic champion Vanessa Ferrari for the inauguration event of the gym that weeks later they continue to tell all the people they meet, holding the diary with their dedication in their hands and above all the week at the beach in Lignano Sabbiadoro this summer for the Summer Camp of artistic gymnastics.

In addition to the workouts, there were giant plates of French fries to eat, sunsets on the beach to build grandiose castles for, water parks with slides and pools, hands to hold and beds to pull together so as not to be afraid to spend the night far away from home. and especially as a mother. A giant gift, for those who, due to the economic difficulties of the family of origin, did not even remember the last holiday. Tigers Academy is the dream of a group of families who have combined energies and resources for the happiness of their children, building a gigantic playground for them tool after tool. But inside beautiful dreams there is always room for some guests and some intruders. Just get out of the gray of the city and find among the crumbs of the snack, the most beautiful day that makes the small lives of a group of girls more beautiful.

Tuesday is the day of the week when a group of girls cross the gray of the city to reach the beautiful gym where feet and hands come off the ground

Marco Grossetti

NP Marzo 2022