Paris 2024 Olympics, Nadia Battocletti bronze by just two hours

No bronze for Nadia Battocletti

Nadia Battocletti won an unexpected bronze medal in the women’s 5000 meters at the Paris 2024 Olympics, but then lost it after two hours after an appeal won by Kenya. The bronze then slipped away was the first medal obtained by Italy in athletics in this edition of the Games: with a time of 14:31.64 represents the new national record in the discipline.

Nadia Battocletti’s third place stemmed from a disqualification to Faith Kipyegon, who had crossed the finish line second behind newly crowned Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet (both Kenyans) but after pushing Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay. In this way the silver had gone to Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and the bronze to the Italian athlete. Filed an appeal, Kenya has (somewhat surprisingly) won it.

Battocletti, who battled for the entire event with the best on the track, had dreamed of a bronze medal on the same day that had greeted Diana Bacosi and Gabriele Rossetti's gold in the mixed skeet and the great feat in gymnastics, with Alice D'Amato's resounding gold and Manila Esposito's bronze on beam.

The medal count in Paris 2024, counting Battocletti's eventual bronze, would rise to a total of 26 for the Italian expedition. Italy had won a total of 40 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, setting a new record for spoils in a single edition of the Games. On that occasion, there had been 10 gold medals, as many silver medals and 20 bronze medals.