Italy entered the final day of a remarkable European sports week at the top of the medal table at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham and just one gold behind Great Britain in swimming in Paris.
After Saturday’s competitions, the Italian track and field team led Europe with 8 golds, 4 silvers and 5 bronzes – 17 medals overall – ahead of host Great Britain, which stood at 6 golds, 5 silvers and 1 bronze. In the swimming medal table, Great Britain moved narrowly ahead with 6 golds, while Italy had 5, leaving everything open for Sunday’s final session.
Saturday, August 15, added another spectacular chapter. Italy won 3 athletics gold medals in a single day through Massimo Stano, Sofia Fiorini and Andy Diaz. Diaz produced the most explosive performance, soaring to 18.15 meters in the triple jump – a new Italian record and the fourth-best mark in history. Andrea Dallavalle added bronze, giving Italy 7 athletics medals on Saturday alone, a national record for a single day at the European Championships.
The race walkers had already turned the morning into an Italian celebration. Stano completed his extraordinary collection of major international titles by winning the marathon race walk, while Fiorini captured the women’s marathon race walk in 3:15:11, setting a world record for the newly standardized distance. Alexandrina Mihai contributed silver in the women’s half-marathon race walk.
Those results followed the Italian gold rush of previous days, which included Nadia Battocletti, Gianmarco Tamberi, Dariya Derkach and other members of a national team that arrived in Birmingham with a record 132 athletes.
In Paris, Nicolò Martinenghi delivered Italy’s biggest swimming victory Saturday. The Olympic champion won the 50-meter breaststroke in 26.57, completing a European double after already taking the 100-meter title. Simone Cerasuolo shared silver in 26.62, while Anita Gastaldi earned silver in the 200-meter individual medley.
Sara Curtis continued her extraordinary championships with bronze in the 50-meter freestyle in 23.99, becoming the first Italian woman under 24 seconds. It was her fifth medal of the competition – 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronzes – after she had already electrified Paris by breaking the 50-meter backstroke world record twice, eventually lowering it to 26.56.
And Italy’s medal wave is no longer limited to athletics and swimming. A third European Championship is underway in Zagreb – artistic gymnastics – and the Azzurre are collecting medals there too.
Manila Esposito produced another memorable Italian performance Saturday, winning European gold in the floor exercise and silver on the balance beam within about an hour. Elisa Iorio took silver on the uneven bars, while 17-year-old Giulia Perotti earned bronze in the same event. That meant 4 Italian medals in Saturday’s apparatus finals alone.
From Birmingham to Paris and Zagreb, three different European Championships are unfolding simultaneously – and Italian athletes are standing on podiums everywhere. With 8 athletics golds already secured, 5 swimming golds entering the final day and another European title from Esposito in gymnastics, August 2026 is becoming an exceptional showcase of the depth and versatility of Italian sport.
