Il 2021 it was the golden year for Italian sport. From the victory of the Azzurri to Euro 2020 (beating the still embittered on penalties England) last July, until recently gold medal for the track cycling team (team pursuit) at the world championships Roubaix 2021, our athletes have distinguished themselves in different disciplines, also breaking very important records, as in the case of Marcell Jacobs, with his European record di 9,8 seconds on 100 m indoors at the last Olympics in Tokyo 2020. The blue also won gold in the 4 × 100 relay with Filippo Tortu, Lorenzo Patta e Fausto Desalu (with a sad déjà vu for England). However, not everyone seems to agree on Jacobs' excellent sporting performance. There World Athletics in fact, he did not include any Italians in the list of 10 athletes candidates for the award "Best athlete of the year 2021"(Male category).
Best athlete of the year 2021: Italy snubbed?
For the nominations as "Best Athlete of the Year 2021", World Athletics considered athletes from all over the world. All the athletes have won at least one gold medal at the past Olympics. This is the Portuguese Pedro Picardo, European indoor triple jump champion, the Norwegians Karsten Warholm e Jakob Ingebrigtsen, respectively world champion in 400 hurdles and world champion in 1500 flat meters, the Swedes Daniel Stahl e Armand Duplantis, respectively discus throwing world champion and pole vaulting European champion, the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou, European indoor long jump champion, the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, Olympic gold medal in the marathon, the Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei, silver in the 10.000 meters, the American --Ryan Crouser, world shot put champion and Canadian Damian Warner, decathlon gold.
World Athletics has undoubtedly nominated all deserving champions to receive the "Best Athlete of the Year 2021" award. However, considering the European record beaten by Jacobs however, one would think that the Italian would have deserved a little more attention by the jury. The World Athletics has however specified that the jury "has nominated athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout the year and not just in Tokyo 2020". This will be enough to appease the controversy over the exclusion of Italy from the AI World Athletics Awards? Although the jury's decision surprised everyone, including the Italian athletics federation, it matters little. Jacobs, Tamberi, the blues of Mancini and all theItaly of sport they have given many emotions and great satisfactions in this dark and difficult year. This matters more than any other award.
Cover photo: © Italian Athletics Federation (official Facebook page).
