#oroolimpico

Winston Churchill once said that Italians lose wars like soccer matches and soccer matches like wars. Matter-of-factly, any American who sets foot in Italy, more specifically in Rome, is quick to notice the fervor with which Romans impersonate this principle, where the never-ending feud between AS Roma and SS Lazio supporters is almost a matter of honor. This micro-situation acquires macro-importance during the World Cup, where the hype can easily be compared to that of the American Super-Bowl, albeit on a planetary scale. This being said, it might help to note that soccer is also a Summer Olympic sport; however, conversely to the World Cup, the Italian National Team has ironically not managed to do particularly well during Olympic matches, having won just one Bronze Medal in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 and one Gold Medal in the Berlin Olympics of 1936.

Against this Olympic backdrop, in 2012, Rome canceled its initial intentions of bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.  Still and all, after only three years, on February 10, 2015, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) confirmed the buzz it had anticipated in December 2014; that is, Rome’s renewed interest in bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.  Considering that the last time Rome hosted the Summer Olympics was in 1960, more than half a century ago, the prospect of making Rome the hub –at least for one season– of many great sports other than soccer, is quite appealing. However, this consequently begs a further, superficial question: is there another sport that can be considered equally autochthonous, but that can occupy the Italian passions perhaps more than soccer during the Olympics? The answer is a resounding “yes!”

While Italy excels in all sporting disciplines, both winter and summer (at the London 2012 Olympics, it ranked 8th on the final medal table, out of 85 participating countries,) there are certain sports that are considered national “fortes”, if you will. A case in point being fencing, which is also “older” than soccer, if we take into account that professional soccer played in Italy began in 1898, whereas contemporary Olympic fencing in Italy dates back to 1500 (although early rudiments of this sport can be traced all the way back to ancient Egypt.) Even the first fencing school in the United States opened before professional soccer started in Italy, being that it was founded in 1874, coincidentally by Italian and French fencing masters.

According to the Italian Fencing Federation, in merely a century of Olympic history, as of London 2012, Italy had won 121 Olympic medals for fencing and half of these (among which 29 gold medals,) have gone to the fencers of the Circolo Scherma Fides di Livorno (Fides Fencing Circle of Livorno,) the sports club with the highest number of Olympic and World titles. Not to mention, of course, the additional European and National championship titles, all of which have contributed to make the Tuscan seaside city of Livorno one of the capitals of world fencing.

In the realm of fencing, pronouncing the word Livorno, inevitably draws the attention to the Montano family, or dynasty, more precisely. This dynasty started in 1910, with the birth of Aldo Montano (senior.) It continued with his son Mario Aldo and his nephews, Carlo, Mario Tullio and Tommaso Montano. All of them, except Carlo, practiced foil and were saber champions. However, while Olympic gold medals abounded in the team competitions, none of the Montano had managed to get the individual gold medal… that is, until Aldo (junior, born in 1978) son of Mario Aldo and grandson of Aldo (sr.,)  came along.

Exactly in 2004, and none other than in Athens –the cradle of the Olympic games- Aldo (jr.) managed to succeed where his other family members could not, beating Zsolt Nemcsik after an utterly intense match. The intensity was heightened by the Hungarian nationality of Nemcsik, as Hungary is one of Italy’s staunchest opponents, if not its very nemesis in all things fencing. This Gold medal marked a definitive and unquestionable consecration for the Montano family, for Livorno and for Italy in general, reconfirming fencing as a sport that Italians should be paying more attention to, perhaps not substituting soccer but making some parallel room for it.

On this note, between tournaments and training, we were able to catch up with Aldo, who kindly answered the following questions for us.

Aside from coming from a family of fencers, one of your great-uncles was Armando Picchi, a soccer player with Inter in the 1960-67 seasons, as well as a coach for Juventus in the 1970-71 season. Along these lines, at the age of nine, you once said on TV you wanted to go into soccer. Given the greater coverage that soccer has always had in this country, and in spite of your stronger fencing family heritage, could you briefly guide us through that period of your life and let us know what was the decisive factor that finally led you to pick the latter over the former?

In my town and in my family, in particular, the pressure over me was pretty strong: my grandfather was 5 times world champion and twice silver medalist at the Olympics, my dad 2 times World Champion and Olympic Champion in 1972. I thought that dedicating myself to a different sport, with a higher audience –at least in Italy- as football would be more attractive to me. But then I started to win my first fencing competitions, and the thrill of lifting my first cups and receiving my first medals grew stronger and stronger, so I abandoned the idea of football and endlessly fell in love with this fencing discipline… also under the fascination of my family’s sporting history.

How do you feel about Italians becoming sudden supporters of fencing –and other sports- only during the Olympics, instead of regularly taking interest? What do you think can be done to change the mindset and to promote other sports more?

It’s only natural that Olympic sports draw attention and enthusiasm once every 4 years. There’s not much you can do about it, if not keeping the attraction alive towards Olympic champions, diluting and distributing their presence on the media within the other 4 years, when you don’t have any game going on.  

According to past interviews, the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics will be your last Olympic games as a competing athlete. Where do you see yourself afterwards? Will you go into coaching?

Rio games COULD be the last ones, but one never knows! I want to stick around in the sports industry, to best exploit my experience, in helping to form new generations of champions and loyal sportsmen and women.

Do you like the idea of Rome hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games? How do you imagine those Olympic Games to be?

Of course I do! But let’s not forget we (“we” as Italians) already tried to get the games both in 2004 and 2012, unsuccessfully. These are no easy events to set up, and there are many growing countries who have never hosted them, who find themselves in a better position than us as far as money and structures are concerned; many of these countries outperform Italy in this respect. However, for an Olympic athlete, being able to race or compete in his own country is the wildest dream coming true! I think having the games in Italy might be the ultimate boost to relaunch our beautiful and breathtaking country, a country that truly doesn’t deserve the historic moment of mediocrity and negativity which it’s going through.

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In thanking Aldo for sharing his thoughts and insights, it’s ironic that one of Italy’s main antagonists for this wonderful Olympic adventure should be the United States, which has chosen to candidate Boston. We will have to wait three more years to know who pulled it off! In the meantime, whether Italian or American, it is advisable to expand our sports horizons, so as to enjoy to the fullest both the artistic aspect and the competitiveness that ensues from the many sporting disciplines that mankind created.