Paris 2024, Giovanni Malagò does not hide a sore point
Little Italy in team sports at Paris 2024: only 4 teams out of 16 tournaments
On the sidelines of the Coni Council, which approved the numbers of the Italian expedition to Paris 2024 (there are 403 athletes who will represent the tricolor in the French capital), the president of the Olympic Committee, Giovanni Malagò, expressed his personal disappointment regarding team sports: out of 16 tournaments, including men’s and women’s, there will be only four blue teams.
"C’è great bitterness, great disappointment – said Malagò -. The failure to qualify in soccer è was metabolized in over a year, although the technical requirements to qualify us were there, while in men’s basketball the concept è different: with 12 teams making up the tournament and continental quotas it was really difficult".
Representing Italy in team sports will be the men's and women's volleyball national teams (both thanks to a good ranking in the world rankings) and those, also men's and women's, of water polo (the Settebello thanks to participation in the 2024 World Cup final, the Setterosa thanks to seventh place in the same event held in Doha).
Nothing to do for soccer: the men were supposed to get one of the three spots available at the 2023 European Under-21 Championships, but instead they were eliminated in the rounds; the women were supposed to win the Nations League (or make it to the final in the case of a win by France, already qualified as the host country) but did not qualify for the semifinals.
Also out is the alreadyà mentioned basketball, both men’s and women’s, in both the 5-on-5 and 3-on-3 versions: the one who came closest to qualification è was the men’s national team coached by Gianmarco Pozzecco, which però stopped in the semifinals of the Pre-Olympic tournament in Puerto Rico a few days ago. Nothing to do for all the other National Teams: the women’s 5-on-5 has been missing since Atlanta 1996, while in the 3×3 they failed to repeat the exploit of the women’s National Team, which managed to qualify for Tokyo 2020 (finishing sixth at the end).
Far from qualifying were the national field field hockey and handball teams (never at the Games except for men's field field hockey participation in Rome 1960, as the home team), while in 7-a-side rugby Italy disappointed at the 2023 European Games, which provided one direct ticket to Paris and two to the Pre-Olympic in Monte Carlo for each of the two tournaments: the men's national team in fact finished eighth, the women's seventh.
