We the Italians December 28, 2014 - 50 | Page 14

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# 50 • DECEMBER 28 , 2014

Pellegrini, who managed to
overcome the darkness of
London 2012 either with the
world silver in Barcelona 2013
but, above all, with the extraordinary comeback in this year’s
4x200 relay. The 4 seconds and
a half literally "eaten" to the opponent in her last fraction are,
in this writer's humble opinion,
the most beautiful moment in
the whole 2014 for Italian sport.
An unfriendly character, not
always at ease with diplomacy,
Federica Pellegrini remains the
strongest Italian swimmer of
all time, with all the cards to
retire after Rio in 2016, but not
before another sequence of
successes.
Vincenzo Nibali has brought in
Italy the Tour de France winner
yellow jersey, fifteen years after
the ever regret Marco Pantani.
Also favored by the retreats of

# 50 • DECEMBER 28 , 2014

the other two candidates, Froome and Contador, but still in an
exceptional shape that would
much probably allow him to
beat them, the Sicilian has
made a small masterpiece: his
victory was never in doubt and
practically the walkway with
yellow jersey on the Champs
Elysees was the deserved
recognition to a 30-year professional who has already won
three major cycling tours in the
world, also including Giro and
Vuelta.
Marco Belinelli changed many
teams in the NBA (four to be
precise: Golden State, Toronto,
New Orleans, Chicago) before
arriving in San Antonio, where
he was the first (and only, for
now) Italian player in history
to win the championship ring.
Protagonist of a season of victories, in which he also brought
home the title of the best three-

point shooter during the All
Star Game, the guard from Bologna has two major goals for
2015: to repeat the success in
the NBA and to lead the Italian
national team to a honorable
European championship.
Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci
took home the most beautiful success to which a tennis
player can aspire: Wimbledon,
the last Grand Slam missing
after winning the Australian
Open, US Open and Roland
Garros. Current world No.1 in
the female double chart, Errani
and Vinci give luster to a tradition, that of the Italian women's
tennis, that in the last 10 years
has won four Fed Cup (the highest competition for national
teams) and also showed other
great champions like Francesca
Schiavone (who won the single
Roland Garros tournament in
2010) and Flavia Pennetta.

Among the bittersweet memories of the year that is going away, we can mention the fourth place of our national team at the Volleyball World Cup, which took place in Italy with a lot of enthusiasm and an excellent organization.
All the Italian champions previously mentioned have good chances at winning again in 2015:
it will be an odd year, so there won’t be competitions like the Soccer World Cup and Olympics;
but, just to mention a few, we will be enjoying the World Cup in swimming, athletics and skiing,
the European championship in basketball and volleyball, as well as numerous surprises that will
surely blow out during the year.
It will be a pre-Olympic year and this is even more interesting: our protagonists will not want to
miss a shot at 2016 Rio Olympic Games and we, as always, will be there to tell you about it.

BY SIMONE CALLISTO MANCA
IMAGES © http://cdn.tempi.it/wp-content/uploads/
old_post/federica-pellegrini-foto-medaglia-oro.
jpg, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciclismoitalia/14592812524/sizes/o/, https://www.flickr.com/
photos/basketstreaming/14450140034/sizes/o/,
http://sport.sky.it/static/contentimages/original/sezioni/sport/tennis/2012/09/09/sara_errani_rogerta_vinci_trofeo_us_open_2012_getty.jpg

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