sport
DON FRANCIS
ITALY’S ENCHANTED SUMMER OF 2021
A
fter the agonizing time from a rampaging pandemic in 2020, Italy could not have looked forward more to a pleasant, if not a fabulous, summer this year. Yet, it is a safe bet to assert that, except for a few soothsayers perhaps, no one in Italy thought they would live through a heady, fairytale summer of sports this year! Of course, Italy did not escape the highly capricious weather again this year: it had to suffer the horrors of wildfires as well as floods, the everrepeating consequences of climate change affecting all continents across the globe. In the midst of it all, however, Italy managed to enjoy the heroic feats of its superb athletes and footballers during what turned out to be a summer of pure sporting magic. The pandemic had torn apart the sporting calendar of 2020, with various parts of the world in lockdown and the economies barely ticking over. It should have been a busy year of sports with the UEFA Euro 2020 Football tournament (and its equivalents in Africa and the Americas) and the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 scheduled to take place. It was undoubtedly an untold disappointment for all those sportspeople and athletes when the famous tournaments and sporting events were called off or postponed, one after another, as the pandemic started and spread. The three big football tournaments and the Olympics were only the top casualties.
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iNEWS
2020 was a year that taxed everybody, above all, the medical personnel and workers in the essential services. They had to brave the threat of the virus to ensure our safety and the smooth functioning of the respective economies. But it was a year of fear, frustration and disruption for almost everyone on earth, with travel and activities curtailed to the bare minimum. Indeed, professional and top-level sportspeople everywhere had to undergo severe deprivations due to the lockdown. Inevitably they had to face a veritable battle to keep physically fit and find ways to practice and perform the necessary skills and drills. At the beginning of this year, it was a nervous wait for sportspeople and fans everywhere as a new wave of the virus ravaged across Europe and, indeed, elsewhere. In hindsight, some of us are grateful and others at least ready to acknowledge that the UEFA, IOC and the organizers of the EURO 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics 2020 were right when they persisted in staging the two events, regardless of the many detractors and the pervasive threat of the pandemic. Somehow, their tenacity and stubbornness paid dividends, and television audiences all over the world were also the recipients of those dividends! The UEFA had decided on a unique format to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European football championships. Instead of www.inewsswiss.com
