Kisses, hugs, the makeup that melts and stains the faces of the Fairies. On the day Paris crowns Simone Biles queen of this Olympicsthere is also space and glory for the Italians. The Italian Artistic Gymnastics team won a historic silver medal that hadn’t arrived since 1928, and drove five girls crazy, unique in coordination and grace. They will never be Biles, but in the Bercy Arena Angela Andreoli, Alice D’Amato, Manila Esposito, Elisa Iorio and Giorgia Villa come close and write a piece of Italian sports history. They had finished in second place in the preliminaries, behind the untouchable Americans, and repeated their placing in the final at the end of the four rotations in which they always competed paired with the USA, putting on a show almost equal to that of the champion of this sport. For her part, the woman for whom the good heart of America has been beating for three years has taken back tonight what fate took away from her three years ago at the Tokyo Games. She was the announced star of that Olympics, but instead it was complete darkness. She lacked balance, the fault of the twisties, dizziness amplified for someone who practically lives by twirling in the air. She stopped for two years and in the third here she is again free from her demons, driven by the love of millions of fans, stars and ordinary people.
Biles’ rebirth leaves the thousands of her compatriots speechless, who crowd the Parisian venue beyond expectations: she is applauded by her husband-cheerleader Jonathan Owens, an NFL player, and by Bill Gates, Serena Williams and the director Spike Lee, one of the most ‘wild’ supporters but always respectful of the Olympic spirit. But between vault, uneven bars, beam and floor exercise, Italy always leads the dance of the rest of the world, never a moment of weakness and in the end it gives itself a dream. There is quality and substance in these girls, and not only in them because it is the whole movement that grows, and together with the stars and stripes and that of Brazil the Tricolor waves, because this time it is a podium after the “cardboard medal” in Tokyo which was almost a joke but now we understand that it served to grow further. So now they are tears of joy, of these Fairies who almost seem not to believe it, but they came here precisely for this, gritting their teeth like Iorio from Modena who managed to compete despite the problems with her left ankle, constantly watered with painkiller spray between one exercise and another.’ The maestro Enrico Casella, former rugby player but above all gymnastics dt who closes a career that deserved this joy with a bang, thinks of her. The one who gave him the certainty was Angela Andreoli who in the free throws places a Tsukahara and a double ‘illusion’ which are the right moves to be sure of the podium and to have written a page that remains. Biles waiting to give another show takes home the fifth Olympic gold of her career which already makes it the greatest ever, but how much mastery, how much lightness and at the same time magic in her exercises. Observed live it is something that remains inside, there are no more mental blocks to stop her, she is unique and can even allow herself a yawn, immediately shown to the public by the luminous scoreboard. Then down again applause, she responds with a dazzling smile followed by a kiss. The most beautiful exercise of her return to competitive life: this alone is worth a nice 10.
“I was anxious, I knew that the podium would depend on my exercise, but my teammates came to me to tell me to relax and have fun and I managed to do my exercise well. It’s the greatest emotion I’ve ever felt, which repays me for all the sacrifices made: you give up your teenage life to chase the dream of the Olympics and crown it with silver behind the United States…”. Angela Andreoli is radiant after the historic result achieved with the Fairies at the Paris Games. “Biles? She congratulated me,” she added. Also for Elisa Iorio, who made the final while injured competing only on the parallel bars, “the emotion is so great, we have achieved a historic goal. The dedication? To my family, to my boyfriend who supports me, does the same sport and understands me, and then to all the people who support us” https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/sport/2024/07/30/le-fate-azzurre-riscrivere-la-storia-e-argento-dopo-96-anni-solo-simone-biles-fa-meglio-066de3e7-aa6a-4f94-921d-e55e431a2635/. “Last night I really struggled to fall asleep – she says instead Manila Esposito – I don’t have the words to describe how I feel right now. We were good at keeping our concentration until the end.”