For once, let’s talk about seconds. The pretext is offered, once again, by tennis. Italy is in a state of grace, here several times we have used tennis (and its current Homeric hero Jannik Sinner) as a trigger point to think about much else. In this case we start from the Davis Cup: in addition to its geopolitical implications (the only one won by our country before the cyclone Sinner, Berrettini, Musetti, Sonego and company, was the one played after great discussions, including parliamentary ones, in Pinochet’s Chile in 1976) , the Davis Cup provides an interesting look at the most widespread and followed individual sport in the world. If football, basketball, volleyball, cricket, baseball interest billions of people, tennis which among individual sports, as far as this type of ranking matters, is indicated as the third most practiced sport on the planet, is a good indicator of sports policies, by virtue of its need to “reach” individually, both to the spectator who enjoys the show and as a sporting proposal to be practiced. On Sunday our Azzurri beat the Netherlands in the final, which therefore finished in second place, thus completing a magical year. A nation that does not have 18 million people came in sixth place overall in the Olympic medal table in Paris, behind only nations unmatched in terms of number of athletes and, just behind hosts France. Orange cycling, in addition to its consolidated road tradition, has won three gold medals with only Harrie Lavreysen on the track; then lots of athletics (ever heard of Femke Bol, the queen of the 400 meter dash, hurdles or relay?), 3×3 basketball, rowing (eight medals!), swimming, horse riding, sailing. In short, 34 Olympic medals in 13 different disciplines to which must be added the return to the semifinals of the European football championship, the second place in the Davis Cup as mentioned, and even Max Verstappen’s fourth consecutive world title in Formula 1. Nothing happens by chance and the “Holland model” should be studied in detail, in particular for its ability to bring together investments in the spread of sporting practice and the successes of high-level sport. At the respective extremes of this interesting scale there are Italy (great successes with top sport, but shameful numbers in grassroots sport, in percentages of sedentary lifestyle, in sports infrastructures, especially school ones) and Finland (symmetrically the (exactly opposite to Italy). The “Holland model” is certainly the result of years of research, investments, public policies and cultural models, starting from school. However, if anyone wants to find out more, note this name: Papendal sports center, near Arnhem. A true city of sport, where absolute excellence reigns and the ability to take care of every detail in order to become, but not only, a medal factory. In essence, we could say that behind the “Holland model” without trivializing, there are no secrets, but only the skilful mix of three elements: a political vision in the highest sense, a beautiful house (Papendal and many other infrastructures) and , or perhaps most importantly, a deep work ethic. © all rights reserved
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