Forbidden not to dream: Italy sailing goes in the hunt for Olympic medals

Sailing Olympics – Italy’s strongest ever?

Let’s not hide, this time we are not the Cinderella of Olympic sailing. This time we do not arrive with the very remote hope of trying to get close to a medal.
This time the Italian national sailing team arrives at the Olympics after having dominated in some disciplines during the quadrennium.
Nacra 17 of course, but not only, because this blue wave of sailing seems to be not only Ruggero and Caterina, who in Marseille will try to defend the Tokyo /Enoshima gold.
Renna (sailboards), Benini (ILCA), Germani-Bertuzzi (49er fx) , Maggetti (sailboards), Berta-Festo (470 mixed) have high ambitions. True, the Olympics is its own game, it is not a World Cup regatta, it is not even a World Championship, but it is the most important regatta in an athlete’s life.
The pressure is not the same, the atmosphere around and the anticipation are not the same, and sometimes the results can hold many surprises.
The path of the Azzurri so far has been splendid, and to arrive on the eve of the Games with several medal hopefuls means being on the right track.
Now, however, we need to cover the final, uphill course in the heat of Marseille, with the Mistral ready to kiss the decisive races for medals.
It will take very strong hearts and heads.

NACRA 17 | Mixed Doubles, Multihulls

Evergreen the Azzurra representation in the Nacra 17 class, the evergreen duo Tita / Banti.
Ruggero Tita was born in 1992 in Rovereto, Caterina Banti in 1987 in Rome.
Together since late 2016, 2020 Olympic champions, they have dominated in these two four-year terms the blue Nacra 71.
They now present themselves in Marseille as the super favorites of the prediction and as 2023 world champions (as well as 2022 and 2018…).
In short, in the right week they can be unbeatable, but watch out for the pitfalls of the Olympics.

470 | Mixed Doubles, Dinghy

Let’s start with the quintessential Olympic hull, the 470.
Mixed, starting with this edition of the 2024 Games.
Representing the Azzurri, after their excellent performance in Hyères, is the Berta / Festo duo.
Class of 1992, Elena Berta will be at the helm of the Azzurro 470 Mx crew, thus gaining her third Olympic participation, which began with Rio 2016.
First Olympics for Bruno Festo, on the other hand, class of 1999.
The duo, of no small ívelo, is considered a bit like the “wild-card” by the 470 fleet: they are determined, they do not lack skill and, above all, they have all the credentials to amaze and surprise.
They demonstrated this well at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, with striking trials, we shall now see in the waters of Marseilles.

49er FX | Women’s Doubles, Skiff

Already third at the 2024 FX Worlds, the Bertuzzi/Germani duo will represent Italy in 49er FX in Marseille. Class of 2001, Giorgia Bertuzzi was born in Rovereto, Jana Germani, on the other hand, in Trieste, in 1999.
At 23 and 25 years old they are, in short, already at the top of the 49er FX fleet,where they have won in the last two years a European bronze and silver, and world bronze.
They will go to the Olympics to try to impress and make people dream beyond the medal race.

ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 | Men’s Single and Women’s Single.

Double single medals for the ILCA Classes, men’s ILCA 7 and women’s ILCA 6, respectively.
Representing the Azzurri were Lorenzo Chiavarini and Chiara Benini.
Born in Rome in 1994, of Scottish mother, Chiavarini raced for a long time for Great Britain’s colors in the Laser before finally making his debut with Italy.
At the Olympics, he will surely go to hit the medal race.
Among the youngest at the Games, however, is Chiara Benini, class of 2002, from Rovereto.
Little to say, she is a laserist (ILCA) on the rise, always in the top 10 in the World Cup: an outsider to keep an eye on.

KITE FORMULA | Male Kite and Female Kite

New formula, new faces.
And it certainly applies to Blue Kite.
Very young, here, the representatives of Italy: Maggie Pescetto and Riccardo Pianosi.
The former, Maggie Pescetto, class of 2000, was actually already on the national kite team at age 17.
The big breakthrough, however, in 2019, with the jump to kite-foil, starting to collect placings.
Now, the Olympic dream in Women’s Kite.
Already ranking as the youngest in the class, however, is Riccardo Pianosi (2005), who, however, already shows how these numbers count for little, on the strength of a palmares among the best, including gold at the 2024 Europeans.
Marseille 2024 is his Olympic debut, but he is already among the big boys in kiting.

iQFOiL | Male Table and Female Table

New formula and new boards for Olympic windsurfing, which changes platforms but not necessarily faces.
To represent Italy, in fact, again Marta Maggetti, 28-year-old from Cagliari, already an Azzurra in Tokyo a few years ago.
Now she is at the Olympics of maturity, with more experience in her bag and talent to spare.
European and World Champion, on the other hand, the men’s iQFOiL Azzurro representative, Nicolò Renna, class of 2001 and in the midst of climbing the windsurfing world.
In short, he too comes to the Olympics with great ambitions and will be one of the men to beat.