After two gold medals for Italy's track and field athletes within eleven minutes, a wave of enthusiasm broke out at home.
First a shared high jump triumph, then an unexpected sprint victory: after two gold medals for Italy's track and field athletes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, a wave of enthusiasm broke out at home. Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi congratulated the gold duo Gianmarco Tamberi and Lamont Marcell Jacobs on Sunday by phone. A number of athletes, celebrities and politicians spoke up on social media.
“Sorry to interrupt, fastest man on earth, the Italian Prime Minister is on the phone”. ❤️🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/AA1qKeGlZQ
– Mark Lowen (@marklowen) August 1, 2021
High jumper Tamberi could hardly believe the success. “I'm afraid to sleep,” wrote the 29-year-old on Instagram. He doesn't want to wake up from this dream. It was a golden night for Italy. Tamberi jumped 2.37 meters and thus exactly the same height as Essa Mutaz Barshim from Qatar. In the end, both shared first place after consultation with the judge. Shortly thereafter, sprinter Jacobs ran for gold over 100 meters.
Two medals, two legends
“Italy will say forever: 'Do you remember August 1st, 2021?'” Wrote the Gazzetta dello Sport euphorically. The Turin newspaper “La Stampa” titled the two winners as “the gods of Olympus”. The Roman paper La Repubblica wrote of “Eleven minutes from a fairy tale”. The two Olympic victories were so close together.
In terms of sport, it has been a great year for Italy so far, as the footballers had already triumphed at the European Championship. National coach Roberto Mancini wrote on Facebook that the two Olympians had gone down in history. And goalkeeper legend Gianluigi Buffon also congratulated: “Two medals, two legends, two dreams that no waking up can ever erase,” wrote the 2006 world champion.
