An Italian named “Marcell Jacobs” shocked the world by winning the 100-meter race at the Tokyo Olympics, earning the title, “World’s Fastest Man.” But, just as in other historical examples, there is a woman in his background – in Jacobs’s case, two women – who were crucial in his quest for Olympic glory: his mother, Viviana Masini, and his “mental coach,” Nicoletta Romanazzi.
The former met Marcell’s African American soldier/father at the American Army base in Vicenza, Italy, where they married and, according to news reports, Marcell (called Marcello in Italy) was born three years later. Shortly afterward, Marcell’s father was transferred to South Korea, and Ms. Masini decided to stay in Italy with her son, where he was raised near Desenzano del Garda. Up until two years ago, Marcell had no contact with his father while growing up, a source of discomfort to him his entire life. His mother says that, due to his different skin color, he even once asked her if she was his real mom.
sprinter (and son) Marcel Jacobs as a young boy (Photo: http://www.italy24news.com)
This tortured non-relationship with a missing father blocked Marcell both as a man and an athlete. But it was his mental coach, Nicoletta Romanazzi, who not only taught him meditation and breathing techniques but who also, along with his athletic coach, urged him to finally reconnect with his absent dad. Despite the language barrier, contact was made. And, as Romanazzi says, “we were able to unblock the unresolved relationship with his father.” Once again, la famiglia, an Italian concept so often caricatured by the Anglo media, revealed its ultimate power. (Indeed, after his victory, Jacobs publicly thanked Romanazzi, as well as his always-loving-and-supportive mother.)
This break-through was a turning point, unleashing Jacob’s confidence; his sprint races afterward improved dramatically. Prior to the Olympics, he even set a new European record in the 100-meters, which suddenly made commentators take notice. Then, a few weeks later, Jacobs made Olympic history as the first-ever Italian man to win a 100 meter sprint, following in the footsteps of the late Pietro Mennea, who won the 200-meters at the Moscow Olympics.
But, Jacobs wasn’t finished. A week later, as a member of the Italian 4×100 relay team (four sprinters on a team each run 100-meters, passing a baton to each other), he won another gold medal. His blazing run kept Italy neck-and-neck with Great Britain and Canada up until the final pass, when Filippo Tortu a Milanese with roots in Sardegna, and long considered Italy’s best sprinter before Jacobs emerged, brought home the gold by out-leaning a runner from the UK.
These golds were in addition to Gianmarco Tamberi’s gold in the high jump, which he shared with Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar. Jacobs had witnessed Tamberi’s win while waiting for his 100-meter race to commence. He said it further inspired him. After Jacobs crossed the finish line, he was greeted not by a fellow runner but by the effusive Tamberi, who ran across the track in his own record time to embrace his fellow Olympian.
As an Italian officially delightfully declared, “Italy now has the man who runs the fastest and the one who jumps the highest.” Viva Italia, indeed!
And, like Jacobs, Tamberi had a great woman behind him, too – his girlfriend Chiara Bontempi, who encouraged him not to give up on his Olympic dream after he broke his foot just before the Rio Games in 2016, crushing his hopes to compete. Tamberi had to wait another five years, but patience eventually won out. (Or, as the Romans said it: vincit qui patitur. “He conquers who endures.”)
Italian women also stood out in the Tokyo games, with gold medals in the lightweight double sculls (the duo of Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini) and in the 20k race-walk (Antonello Palmisano). Lucilla Boari won a bronze in archery. And the tiny Republic of San Marino also won its first-ever medal (bronze) in trap-shooting (Alessandra Perilli).
And, surely, that greatest Italian woman of them all, the goddess Roma, is looking down and basking in her otherworldly pride. -BDC
Thanks, Bill for sharing….I was curious about the Marcello experience, but aside from the 100-meter race, I could not find much about the subject at all, in fact when I watch the Olympics on my local TV channel I rarely get any information about some of the human interests stories in the competition…I recall two athletes, one from Italy, deciding to split a gold medal…which really was in the spirit of sportspersonship. These days it is really wonderful to hear this sort of good news episode…they do shine out in a very bleak world…..
I agree. As for Marcell/Marcello and other athletes not being covered, I wonder if COVID made such stories impossible, due to logistics and being able to interview people in-person.
Italy has had a glorious history in the Summer Olympics. Italy garnered 40 medals in the recent Olympics, and placed 7th in total medals. This tops the previous high of 36 medals, which was Italy’s total in 1932 in Los Angeles (2nd highest of all countries); and also 36 medals in Rome in 1960 (3rd highest of all countries). Italy usually ranks among the top ten in the Winter Olympics as well.
MARIO: Excellent points. Italy’s consistency in athletics is rather amazing considering how small of a country it is (i.e., roughly the size of California).
Even more amazing is the recent report that yet another place in Italy has been approved as a UNESCO heritage site: the porticoes in Bologna.
Italy continues to lead the world with (now) 58 such sites. Again: also amazing when you consider that its closest competitor for UNESCO sites, China, is such a huge land mass.
Bill – it is also quite amazing that, according to UNESCO, over 60% of the entire world’s art treasures are to be found in Italy.
Bill:
The recent Italian sport successes have actually been covered by the Anglo media. Unfortunately, the narrative is negative (no surprise here). Marcello has been ridiculed because he was an “unknown” sprinter before the gold in Tokyo. Also, British media have raised absurd doping allegations. See https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/trackandfield/track/lamont-jacobs-doping-suspicions-tokyo-olympics-1.6134932
Not surprisingly to us Italians, the cheaters were others. A few days ago, British sprinter CJ Ujah was suspended for doping and his silver medal may be voided.
The negative narrative on Italians is no surprise at all. We see that whenever the Italian soccer team wins a major tournament (the Anglo media usually accuses Italy of playing defensive rather than entertaining soccer, or of cheating).
Italian Sport outlets, on the other hand, celebrate other countries’ sportsmen without bogus/cliché negative narratives. Today, the Italian media is celebrating the life of Gerd Muller, a great German soccer player from the 70s who just died.
One of my favorite American films of the late 70s, Breaking Away, has a nasty (and over-all condescending) plot thread: a visiting Italian cycling team who turn out to be cheaters.
Note: One of the most prolific cheating cyclists ever was a good ol’ American boy named Lance Armstrong. But, such flaws are never seen as part-and-parcel of the American DNA.
As for Italian cyclists, read the book, Road to Valor. It’s about Gino Bartali, the two-time Tour de France winner who used his biking skills to secretly save Jews in Italy during WWII.
In typically modest Italian fashion (so much for braggadoccio, another cliche), Bartali never discussed his heroism and, when it was made public, even waved it off as nothing.
Thanks for the book recommendation. Gino Bartali is in fact one of the “Righteous Among the Nations”.
A positive I-A movie (screenplay by Angelo Pizzo, who also wrote the screenplay for Hoosiers) tells the true story of the first U.S. soccer team in World Cup History. In 1950, that team beat the vaunted English team – an incredible upset. Quite a few members of the team were Italian Americans from “The Hill” in St Louis. Too bad our I-A organizations are not proactive in getting more movies like this made. Someday maybe.