Vanessa Ferrari's silver on the artistic gymnastics floor exercise saw Italy equal the number of medals won at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games on Monday (2).
The Azzurri team has so far achieved 28 podiums, four of which are gold, nine silver and 15 bronze, which leaves the country in ninth place in the medals table. In Rio de Janeiro, five years ago, there were eight golds, 12 silvers, eight bronzes and also ninth position in the general ranking.
Furthermore, Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti already have a certain medal in the Nacra-17 sailing class, but it remains to be seen whether it will be gold or silver – they are favorites for the title and lead the classification.
So far, the Azzurri team has climbed to the top step of the podium with Vito Dell'Aquila in taekwondo, Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini in rowing, Gianmarco Tamberi in the high jump and Marcell Jacobs in the 100m dash in athletics.
The nine silvers were won by Luigi Samele (saber) and Daniele Garozzo (foil) in fencing, in the saber in team fencing among men, in the 4x100m freestyle relay in swimming, by Gregorio Paltrinieri in the 800m freestyle, by Diana Bacosi in shooting , by Giorgia Bordignon in weightlifting, by Mauro Nespoli in archery and, this Monday, by Vanessa Ferrari in gymnastics.
The bronzes were due to Elisa Longo Borghini (road cycling), Odette Giuffrida and Maria Centracchio (judo), Mirko Zanni and Antonino Pizzolato (weightlifting), Lucilla Boari (archery), Simona Quadarella, Federico Burdisso, Nicolò Martinenghi and men's 4x100m medley relay (swimming), women's sword and foil relay (fencing), Irma Testa (boxing) and men's light double sculls and men's four without (rowing).
Italy is also close to reaching its record of 36 medals in a single Olympics, achieved in Los Angeles 1932 and Roma 1960, although beating the historic 14 golds from Los Angeles 1984 is a very unlikely goal.
The country is a strong candidate for the podium in beach volleyball (Nicolai and Lupo) and in team sports, such as men's and women's volleyball, men's basketball and water polo. Other possible sources of medals for Italy in the last week of the Olympics are: shooting, karate, wrestling, track cycling and aquatic marathon. (Loop)
