The Butterflies of rhythmics conquer the bronze

The dream of the blue butterflies was written on a kimono bodysuit in the bright colors of a rising sun, first approved and then stopped by a IOC official the night before the competition. But Alessia Maurelli, Martina Centofanti, Agnese Duranti, Martina Santandrea and Daniela Mogurean on the Tokyo carpet took off light and that dream they wrote again in the air with their circles and their evolutions synchronized in unison. It is a bronze of redemption, after the mocking fourth place in Rio, and historic at the same time that of Italy in rhythmic gymnastics. Because he is the number 40 of Italy's record-breaking Olympics. "And we are happy to be part of this story", say the five butterflies in chorus, same harmony outside and in the race.Emanuela Maccarani, the coach of the quintet under whose management had already arrived the silver in Athens and the bronze in London, explained the small - but annoying - bureaucratic hitch that risked deconcentrating the blue. The design of the leotard to be worn in the race included flashes of yellow, red and orange, in honor of the host country, with two ideograms meaning 'dream' and 'butterfly'. Everything ok in recent months for the approval procedure, but a few hours after the race, a CIO official stopped everything: phrases or slogans cannot be displayed on the uniforms in the race. It was not enough to withdraw the emails with the previous yeses, the decision passed to the international federation which said no, despite the applause of all those present at the arena,when the blues had worn the costume on trial. "We said to each other, let's take this medal and wear it at Casa Italia", revealed Maurelli. No sooner said than done. With an overall score of 87,700 - the result of 44,850 in the exercise with the 5 balls and 42,850 with the 3 circles and 4 clubs - the blue climbs on the lowest step of the podium of the Arike Gymnastics Center, with a score higher than the qualifications and a higher difficulty coefficient. Better (92,100) and Russia (90,700), which competed in Tokyo under the banner of the Moscow Olympic Committee. "At this moment - the words of Maurelli, with Centofanti one of the two 'veterans' of Rio - we are not thinking of five years ago and not even of Paris: this is the medal of the present, and we want to enjoy it all". Centofanti says that fromItaly, his father Felice, a former full-back in Serie A, followed the game with the whole family. "He was sporty: he knows what a result like this means", says Martina. And who knows if the bronze in Tokyo does not convince the father even more of the conviction gained in 2019: "My daughter detoxified me from football: I thought it was a sacrifice, until I saw what she must do". But the opposition between football and olympism has no place on the feast day of the butterflies. "It took us an hour for the make-up, and with this bronze all away for tears ..", Maurelli jokes, recounting the tensions of waiting for the score. "This morning when I woke up and saw it was raining I said 'no ... it was raining in Rio too.waiting for the score of Belarus - he adds referring to the opponents overcome between the first and second rotation - it was a great tension: that too reminded me of the wait that decreed the fourth place in Rio ". But the score that ensured a secure podium, when only Russia was missing, it was a party. "This team is one person - Santandrea's conviction - And when we entered the race, it was like flying".