'First the direction, then the speed'. There is a lot of Filippo Tortu in this maxim that stands out in his Instagram bio. And in the meeting with the evocative title 'I'm going to 200', the Olympic gold medallist confirmed himself as a special person within the circus of world athletics. It was not for nothing that Filippo stepped onto the stage in Sala Depero, his hair a little longer than usual, and began by reciting a piece he had written himself from a lectern. About what? On the emotions linked to that magical Japanese relay race: 'The fastest and most interminable seconds of my career. A hundredth, it can't be. But we are the champions. It's been a year but nobody can take those memories out of my mind'.
The sprinter immediately opens up: 'I didn't want to celebrate the anniversary but then I did. And it still moves me and at that Olympics I cried everything. I wished as a child to be and run in a stadium. In primary school I said I wanted to win the Olympics and it was, is, an almost impossible feat. It was data in hand, ours, other people's. Every time I looked towards the grandstand, I started crying again, in fact I did it even louder. They called me a whiner the whole time.
Publication date: 25/09/2022
