Legendary Italians at the European Championships: first in the athletics medal table and second in swimming (and Manila Esposito wins gold in gymnastics)

There is an Italy capable of dominating the continental scene and demonstrating that Italian sport does not live on football alone. The summer of 2026 ends with an anthology page: a sequence of triumphs, stories of redemption and memorable feats which in athletics, water sports and artistic gymnastics have crowned our athletes at the absolute top in Europe.

Dream athletics in Birmingham: first place in the medal table and 4×400 triumph

The apotheosis for the Italian national athletics team took place in Birmingham, where the Italian team led by technical director Antonio La Torre finished in first place in the final medal table, beating the hosts Great Britain. The overall haul is 22 medals: 10 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze.

What triggered the party was a heart-pounding end to the day. First Larissa Iapichino secured her first international gold in the long jump by placing a winning leap of 7.00 meters on her very first attempt, defended by just one centimeter over the British Jazmin Sawyers (6.99 metres) and two over the French Hilary Kpatcha (6.98 metres).

Then, in the last exciting race of the event, the men’s 4×400 relay team made up of Edoardo Scotti, Luca Sito, Mohamed Soudassi and Lorenzo Benati defeated the hosts by three hundredths of a second in the photo finish, giving Italy the decisive overtaking in the standings for 10 golds to 9.

A historic day also enriched by the bronze of the women’s 4×400 (Alessandra Bonora, Anna Polinari, Alice Mangione, Eloisa Coiro), the silver of Pietro Riva in the marathon and the silver in the women’s team with Rebecca Lonedo, Sofiia Yaremchuk and Giovanna Epis, in addition to the successes of Andy Diaz in the triple jump.

Swimming in Paris: record number of podiums and the queen Simona Quadarella

In Paris, at the European Water Sports Championships, Italy placed second in the medal table behind Great Britain by just one gold (14 against 13), but was the first nation in terms of total number of medals with an extraordinary haul of 43 podiums (13 gold, 15 silver, 15 bronze).

The cover goes to Simona Quadarella, capable of winning her third gold medal in the tournament thanks to an overwhelming comeback in the 400 meters freestyle, thus completing the continental hat-trick for the third time in her career with the titles already won in the 800 and 1500 meters freestyle.

There was no shortage of mockery for just a hundredth of a second in the 50 breaststroke for Benedetta Pilato and the 100 backstroke for Thomas Ceccon, nor the regret for the silver medals in the 4×100 mixed relay with Sara Curtis, Benedetta Pilato, Anita Gastaldi, Emma Virginia Menicucci for the women and Thomas Ceccon, Nicolò Martinenghi, Alberto Razzetti, Carlos D’Ambrosio for the men. The diving sector instead took first place for nations with 5 gold medals, while the rest of the podiums were divided between cross-country swimming and artistic swimming.

Manila Esposito’s response: from social hatred to gold in Zagreb

But these competitions also mark redemption for an athlete targeted by haters. In Zagreb, the Italy of artistic gymnastics celebrated another story of enormous symbolic and sporting value. On the eve of the European Championships, nineteen-year-old Manila Esposito – already a double medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics – was unfairly targeted on social networks with heavy body shaming attacks on her physical appearance.

The athlete from Campania responded in the only way she knows how: on the competition field, becoming European champion in floor exercise. With a score of 13,700 she beat the Russian favorite Angelina Melnikova and crowned the Italian gymnastics expedition, finishing in second place with a gold, two silvers from Manila Esposito on the beam and Elisa Iorio on the parallel bars, and Giulia Perotti’s bronze on the bars.