It was bound to be a question of blades. The absolute record of Olympic medals in Italian sport fell this evening at the Ice skating Arena in Assago, Olympic name of the Assago Forum. By Arianna Fontana 35 years at her sixth Olympics: her fourteenth medal, silver in the women’s short track relay (Arianna Fontana, Elisa Confortola, Chiara Betti and Arianna Sighel) in Milan Cortina places her on the highest step of the podium in history which belongs to the athlete with the most medals at the Olympics in Italy. The record had stood since 1960 and belonged to Edordo Mangiarotti, the only one before her to have carried the flag twice at the Opening Ceremony, an elegant gentleman who lived between 1919 and 2012, when he left still very lucid with the hope of still being in the audience at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.
He was born in Renate, in Brianza at the end of the First World War, in the house of a fencing master who was convinced that the three boys of the house needed an education capable of tempering their mind and body. On holiday in the morning 32 km by bike, in the pool to dive, but only from ten metres. All three were soon introduced to fencing by this severe and demanding father, whose memory Mangiarotti never ceased to be moved.
Going down in history as the strongest left-handed fencer of all time, he was actually born with the right hand as the dominant hand, but his father, a great admirer of the great foilist Lucien Gaudin or left-handed like him, Edoardo’s talent is such that it allows itself to be shaped even so without losing dexterity.
The second of three brothers – Dario, the eldest, and Mario, the third, respectively, who were also future high-level fencers – Edoardo developed the skills of a top athlete at a very early age and at 17 he was called up to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Between Berlin 1936 and Rome 1960 he won six Olympic golds, five silvers and two bronzes. In case it doesn’t seem like much, 26 world medals are also pinned to the bodiceconquered at the point of foil or at the edge of the sword because he competed in both weapons. «The international competitions at that time», he told Fc in 2004, had from 60 to 120 participants, compared to 45 today, the elimination rounds lasted whole days, from eight in the morning to midnight», a tour de force in which Mangiarotti seems to be enjoying and getting in shape day by day: «I won all my best medals on the eighth day». Evidently the Spartan education served to guarantee a stainless athletic ability as well as the ancient courtesy that has always distinguished him as well as the rigor in respecting the rules, sport and life. At the age of 85, he retained a vivid memory of Berlin, told with the firm and strong voice that he maintained until the end: «At my first Olympics there were flags, soldiers and uniforms everywhere. I was 17, I won. They gave me the gold medal, they crowned me with laurels in front of 100 thousand people, because Hitler wanted all the awards to be held in the Olympic stadium to show the world the efficiency of the Reich. I had made friends with the Americans Owens and Johnson. I was under the grandstand when Johson won the 100 meters in front of the German, I clearly heard Hitler shouting at him: “Schwein”, pig! Before leaving everyone in the lurch. How can you forget?”.
When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Edoardo Mangiarotti was twenty years old, enlisted as a reserve officer after the officer cadet course in Avellino. With the war he stopped using foils and trained students in the use of anti-tank artillery. When September 8 arrives, Mangiarotti, who is not of that idea, knows that the officers are being called to join the Social Republic of Salò, leaves his students free, deserts and decides to cross the border into Switzerland, beyond which he accompanies seventy Jews who are entrusted to him by a priest.
The escape succeeds and neutral Switzerland, which is also home to the Olympic Committee, does not miss the champion who has landed in its homeland, and Mangiarotti can resume training with the aim of training young athletes. In 1948, with the birth of the Republic and the air becoming clearer, the Mangiarotti brothers returned to shooting for Italy, but England and France saw the Italians as the enemy, even though the sport was formally neutral. Mangiarotti of London 1948 remembered above all the feeling of hostility he experienced: «The antipathy towards the Italians was evident: a judge, his name was Lloyd, made the great Renzo Noschini lose 5-0, leaving us in silver behind France».
In Helsinki 1952 the Mangiarotti family redeems Italy with a fratricidal sword final that ends with Edoardo in gold and Dario in silver. At that time Edoardo was also a correspondent for the Gazzetta dello sport, and he took a dig at the piece that arrived late: “Sorry, Gianni, I had to go and collect the medal”. “Who won?”. “Me”. So hurry up! Write!”.
In Melbourne 1956 Edoardo Mangiarotti, who opened as standard bearer as he would also do in Rome 1960finds his bête noire in the final, the French Christian D’Oriola, the only one in the world who can say he has never been beaten by Edoardo Mangiarotti, he will redeem himself by bringing the team foil gold back to Italy after 20 years of absence.
Even from then on his life will continue to count time in Olympic years, he will be there until Beijing 2008, first as an envoy and then as a delegate of the International Olympic Committee. A job in the real estate sector, a myriad of associations to preside over: Gold Medals for Athletic Valour, the Sports Veterans, the Meritorious of the Municipality of Milan, will keep his long and straight life very busy until the end. Without ever forgetting to go and check the fencing school, even when daughter Carola is in charge: a correction to a posture and an eye on education and respect for the rules never fail. The sword club The Sala Mangiarotti is one of the oldest and most prestigious in Milan, founded in 1909 in via Chiossetto in Milan under the direction of the Head Master Giuseppe Mangiarotti. Edoardo Mangiarotti leaves in 2012, before the London Games.
He probably won’t mind if the ones who overcome him tonight are blades, even if they are different from his.
