"My experience as a patient without a tampon made me think a lot and then there was also the impossibility of carrying out our business, given the government decrees. Moreover, we have a lot of use of the school gym, and even the schools are closed ". Renato Di Napoli, 66, is the president of the Italian table tennis federation who, after the federal council held by videoconference, canceled all activities "from now until the authorities, in particular the health authorities, will tell us that we can resume". No Italian championships, Absolutes, youth and veterans on an individual level, no international activity and no championship, 'frozen' on 4 March: the club title will not be awarded, and the relegations have been blocked. At the center of all this is this manager who still does not leave the house, lives confined in a room and eats separate from the rest of the family: a condition that made him think.
"At the beginning of March I went to the hospital for a check - says the former pong player for years 'soul' of the TT Torino and even before the team of the Dopolavoro delle Poste -, since I wear a pacemaker. A week later I got sick, one high fever treated by the general practitioner with Tachipirine. Then I switched to cortisone, the fever did not go away but they did not swab me. In fifteen days I lost ten pounds, and my doctor is sure that I have taken the coronavirus even if in a mild form. I know how I was, and I dare not think about how it felt who was hospitalized in the ICU. Even thinking about them it could not continue, even if for us the 'problemone' is that of structures where we can't play. And then if even the Tokyo Olympics has been postponed, and I also doubt that it will be done next year, imagine if we could continue. "
Meanwhile, in addition to stopping the activity, the Federal Council has allocated a million euros for the companies, "money that will be allocated - explains the president - on the basis of merit criteria, or the results, a part now and one looking at the 2020 -21 season. We put this million together because we didn't make trips with the national team and skipped three international tournaments: for other sports it won't be much, for us it's a huge amount that we made available ". But the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus will also be heavy for table tennis, of which the president is certain. "Apart from the problem of school gyms, who knows if they will reopen in September - Di Napoli says - I think of many families who will have problems, who has been put on layoffs and I don't know how many parents will be able to afford to spend the thirty euros per month that they need to have their son take a ping pong course. We have zeroed everything, no playoffs, Scudetto and Absolute championships: it hurts but even more if I think about the basic activity ".