Roncadelle, 9 thousand inhabitants and 28th in the medal table with the golds of Danesi (volleyball), Bellandi (judo) and De Gennaro (canoe slalom)

If there were a ranking that would line up the municipalities for Olympic gold medals in proportion to the number of inhabitants, there would certainly be one at the top. Roncadellesmall village on the outskirts of Brescia. A record of three victories at the Paris Games who has crossed several disciplines. In the medal table Roncadelle would be in 28th place, with the same number of gold medals as countries such as Brazil, Iran, Ukraine, Romania, Belgium and in front of national teams like DenmarkCroatia, JamaicaSwiss, Portugal and another sixty teams.

The latest triumph in chronological order for Roncadelle is the one that made millions of Italians explode with joy in the last Olympic challenge in team tournaments: the success of the Italian volleyball team against the Americans. And the captain is from Roncadelle: Anna Danesi28 years old, central Pro Victoria Monza. Already European champion with the Italian volleyball team in 2021, silver and bronze at the 2018 and 2022 World Championships. She is defined as the “Queen of the Walls“: “I love trying to understand what the opposing setter wants to do, trying to get into his head” he once said. In an interview with Vanity Fair a couple of years ago he claimed the dignity of the sports that are less followed especially by the media, that is, those that have their 15 days of fame (and support) precisely with the Olympic Games, as the last two weeks have demonstrated. “In swimming, tennis, gymnastics and volleyball, sensational goals are being achieved – he said – And yet if you open the Gazette we only talk about football. For the World Cup won by the Italian men’s volleyball team, there was a small box on the front page. For goodness sake, football must be respected, but the due proportions should also be respected. To be clear, men’s football has not even been qualified for the last two World Cups… I’ll give you another example, the women’s volleyball it is the most practiced sport in Italy by teenagers. Does it have a value that should be recognized? And I confess that going on the field with this jersey and knowing that so many girls are watching you dreaming of being in your place is really something that excites me”.

Roncadelle had celebrated two more of his champions about ten days ago, both in a very short space of time, on the same day. On the tatami he had beaten all Alice Bellandi26 years old, serving in the Flames Yellowformer world vice-champion and European vice-champion. She won gold in the 78 kilogram category, beating the Israeli Inbar Lanir in the final 11-0. After the success, crazy with joy, she went to kiss her girlfriend, Jasmine. Before the Tokyo Olympics in an interview with Sole 24 Ore ahe explained about his discipline: “Judo teaches you so many values including the unconditional respect for the opponent, therefore for the person in front of you, it teaches you to appreciate the suffering and the sacrifice and I’m not just talking about suffering in terms of training, but also in terms of physical suffering: nobody likes to ‘take a beating’ but sometimes it happens and that’s when you have to know how to react to become a winner. In addition to this, it teaches you to look your fears in the facewhen you fight, you have a person in front of you who has the same goal as you: to beat you, and you have two options: either you face your fears or you let yourself be crushed”.

In the end John DeGennaro30 years old, registered with the Carabinieri, champion of canoe slalom, more precisely in kayaking. His story is already symbolic of what sport means: he is trained by Daniele Molmenti who had won the only previous gold in this specialty, in 2012 in London; and Molmenti in turn was trained by Pier Paolo Ferrazzigold in Barcelona ’92. De Gennaro won in Paris not really as a surprise (he had already been world champion) but after a very tight final: he left behind two top names in the specialty, the French Titouan Castryck and the Spanish Paul Echaniz. Sport as a gym for life, but also (almost) spirituality: “It’s a discipline in which you are in contact with nature. You are immersed in a unique dimension – De Gennaro once said in an interview – It’s a fantastic sensation to navigate rivers and I fell in love with the combination of waves with jumps”.