The expectations that cloud our gaze: Tokyo 2020

There was a time when competing at an Elite Level for the Italian team of artistic gymnastics was enough. When being part of the Team Final was all the fans would ask for. When watching gymnasts doing their routines properly from start to finish was our biggest accomplishment. 

Then something changed. 

Expectations changed because the level of our athletes increased. 

At the 2012 London Olympics, the Italian women's national team reached the team final. Do you know when was the last time before that? In 1960. The result achieved in the final by our girls (seventh) was the best in a long time. We were happy and we knew it. 

But then came a wave of terrific girls, who even as children promised medals and dreams. And no, they did not let us down, no matter what the newspapers might say, no matter what expectations might whisper in our ears. Le Fate have not let anyone down. 

Apart from the results at the European and World Championships which I have already discussed, this time I would like to bring attention to Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021). Because at the Olympics, our women's team not only reached the team final (it hadn't happened in Rio 2016), no, our girls decided to go all out and give us a fourth place (best finish since 1928) that even made us dream and believe in something more.

Yeah, yeah, the podium consists of three positions, we know. Fourth place gets the wooden medal which is not even a real medal, all right. Trust me we know, been there and done that. 

However, our girls arrived at the Olympics without their star athlete Giorgia Villa, injured a few days before the departure, whom they had to replace physically, but also spiritually. They have always said it, they are a family, and this is what makes them special. So let's take stock of the situation: they found themselves at the most important sporting event of their lives, without a super element, in need of replacing world-class performances on all four apparatuses and making up for the absence of their captain. 

How would you have coped with that?

They coped magnificently, rolled up their sleeves, and, although a bit shaky, arrived fourth behind Russia, the USA, and Great Britain. Fourth yes, but at the Olympics.

So, for the season starting next month, culminating with the World Championship, qualifying for Paris 2024, I invite you to lower your expectations. Not because our Fairies are not capable of achieving them, no. But because by doing so, we will not allow our expectations to cloud our gazes and fade their historical achievements. Because then, when they accomplish something great (something else would perhaps be more suitable), our gazes will cloud with emotion and pride, probably due to their Fairy dust.