Much more than gold at the Mediterranean Games, the sports event reserved for the countries bordering the Mare Nostrum where Italy, in Tarragona in Spain, reaffirmed its supremacy in this specific geographical area and won the medal table. An absolute first place never in question: for the fourth consecutive time, the thirteenth total out of eighteen editions, the Azzurri have excelled in the special ranking. The final and clear calculation: 156 medals of which 56 golds , 55 silvers, 45 bronzes and an advantage over Spain, host of 18 titles and 35 total laurels.
But there are not only numbers, there are faces, photos and medals that go beyond their tangible weight. The photo of Libiana Grenot, Maria Benedicta Chigbolu, Ayomide Folorunso and Raphaela Lukudo cheering smiling after having triumphed in the 4 × 400 relay and in a few hours became the symbol of multicultural Italy. Thousands of shares on social media, just in the hours in which the traditional League meeting was taking place in Pontida.
The four blue athletes darted on the asphalt of the athletics stadium going to enrich a medal table, the Italian one, already quite rich. On the same day, the men’s team, made up of Davide Re, Giuseppe Leonardi, Michele Tricca and Matteo Galvan also conquered the top step of the podium. A stellar double but, as mentioned, the success of the women’s team had implications that went beyond sport, and which emerged thanks to that iconic shot that went viral. Here are the stories of the four Italian athletes who won the gold medal at the Mediterranean Games.
Maria Benedicta Chigbolu
Born in Rome on July 27, 1989, Maria Benedicta Chigbolu, 29, as stated on the Fidal website (the Italian Athletics Federation) and the second of six children (three brothers and three sisters) of a religion teacher, Paola , and a Nigerian international consultant, Augustine. Grandfather Julius was a celebrity in Nigeria: he participated in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games reaching the final in the high jump and then became president of the Nigerian Athletics Federation.
The first approach to athletics at the age of sixteen when a professor of the Vittorio Gassman Institute of Psycho-pedagogical Associates in Rome, noticed her remarkable physical qualities, sent her to the Roman camp of the Farnesina. Here he began to practice athletics followed by Fulvio Villa. She is recruited into the Army, she is trained in Rieti by Maria Chiara Milardi and she is romantically linked to the blue fifteenth-century artist Matteo Galvan.
You won the European bronze in the 4 × 400 in 2016, then you achieved the Italian record with the Italian relay at the Rio Games. She graduated in education and training, she in the past she also dabbled as a model.
Ayomide Folorunso
Born in Abeokuta (Nigeria) on October 17, 1996, Ayomide Folorunso, 22, comes from a family originally from the South-West of Nigeria, but since 2004 “Ayo” has settled with her parents – her mother Mariam and Pope Emmanuel, mining geologist – in Fidenza: here she was noticed in school competitions by the technician Chittolini and entrusted to Maurizio Pratizzoli.
She did not manage to dress the blue in the 2013 under 18 World Cup despite having obtained the minimum in five specialties, because she received her passport a few days after the world championship. In June 2015 she was enrolled in Fiamme Oro, coming from Cus Parma. In 2016, at the Assoluti di Rieti, you set the Italian record under 23 of the 400 obstacles in 55.54, improving your staff by over a second, retouched to 55.50 with fourth place in the final at the European Championships in Amsterdam.
Semifinalist at the Rio Games, where he achieved the Italian record with the blue 4 × 400 relay, in 2017 he won the European under 23 title and also gold at the Universiade. She is a medical student and aspiring pediatrician, she demonstrates a mature personality also in cultural interests: she is passionate about fantasy reading, she does not fail to deepen daily also the Holy Scriptures in the Pentecostal community to which she belongs.
Raphaela Lukudo
Nat in Aversa (Caserta) on 29 July 1994, Raphaela Lukudo, 24, comes from a family originally from Sudan, but had settled in Italy for some time: first in Caserta and later, when “Raffaella” was just two years old , in Modena.
You discovered athletics in 2006, with Mollificio Modenese, to then become a promise of the track under the technical guidance of Mario Romano. In 2011, after having proved her worth while still a pupil at the World Championships (semifinalist on the plane despite an injury on the eve of the match), she moved for a couple of years with her family near London, then returned to Italy.
Since June 2015 he has been training with Marta Oliva at the Cecchignola, in the Army sports center. In the 2018 indoor season she won her first overall title on 400 meters to go down to 53.08, the eighth Italian alltime. You are studying physical education but attended the art institute, keeping your passion for drawing and photos.
Libania Grenot
Born in Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) on 12 July 1983, Libania Grenot in Cuba was considered a talent. Pope Francisco is a trade unionist, his mother Olga a journalist. The last appearance with the red and blue jersey and the star was that of the 2005 World Cup in Helsinki. Then the Italian adventure propitiated by her marriage, in September 2006. A year of practically complete inactivity, then the resumption with the coach Riccardo Pisani in Tivoli. About her The citizenship of her and her arrived in April 2008, opening the way for her to make the first improvement in the Italian record of 400, which she brought in 2009 to 50.30.
Since the end of 2011 she has been training in Florida followed by the American coach Loren Seagrave. In 2014 she gained international consecration with the victory at the European Championships in Zurich, while on May 27, 2016 she and she became the Italian record holder of the 200 meters (22.56) in Tampa, in the United States. She confirmed the continental title in 2016 in Amsterdam, where she also won bronze with the blue 4 × 400, then her first individual Olympic final in Rio, followed by the Italian record in the relay.
