Showing posts with label Assago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assago. Show all posts

16 November 2018

Maurizio Margaglio - ice dancer

Multiple champion remembered for famous fall


Maurizio Margaglio began skating when he was 10
Maurizio Margaglio began
skating when he was 10
The ice dancer Maurizio Margaglio, who enjoyed a prolifically successful partnership with Barbara Fusar-Poli from the mid-1990s to the early part of the new century, was born on this day in 1974 in Milan.

Margaglio and Fusar-Poli were national champions of Italy nine times and in 2001 they became the first Italian pair to become World champions, winning in Vancouver ahead of the defending champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France.  They were European champions the same year, during a remarkable season in which they won every event they entered.

Yet they never won an Olympic title in three attempts, and as well as their successes they are remembered as much for the calamity that befell them at their home Olympics in Turin in 2006.

The moment that Margoglio and Fusar-Poli crashed to the ice in Turin
The moment that Margoglio and Fusar-Poli
crashed to the ice in Turin
In their first appearance in international competition for four years, Margaglio and Fusar-Poli were in the gold medal position, leading by a full half-point over the Russian favourites and two-time World champions, Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomorav, after the opening compulsory dance section of the competition.

Yet just seconds away from potentially consolidating their lead in the original dance section, disaster struck.  Performing a rotational lift, Margaglio lost his balance, dropped Fusar-Poli, and fell to the ice himself.

After a bronze medal in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, when another fall possibly cost them gold, it was history repeating itself in a cruel way.

What followed became one of the talking points of the Games and the images appeared in newspapers around the world. The couple scrambled to their feet, but instead of bowing to the judges and acknowledging the crowd, as is customary, the two stood facing each other, almost motionless, for a full 30 seconds, Fusar-Poli fixing Margaglio with stare so intense that one commentator was moved to suggest that “if she had had a pistol, she would have shot him immediately”.

Barbara Funar-Poli was so dismayed at their fall she fixed Margaglio with a long, unflickering stare
Barbara Fusar-Poli was so dismayed at their fall she
fixed Margaglio with a long, unflickering stare
Afterwards, Fusar-Poli was pictured with her head in her hands, sobbing, as the scores were revealed, although when they completed the competition in the free dance the following day they appeared to have been reconciled.  They warmed up at opposite ends of the rink, but at the end of their routine, which they performed impressively and without mishap and which pushed them up to sixth in the final reckoning, they embraced and kissed one another.

Fusar-Poli later said that she was not angry with her partner so much as deeply disappointed that an accident has denied them an opportunity for the second Olympics in a row, especially in their home country.

Margaglio now works as a coach, largely in Finland
Margaglio now works as a coach,
largely in Finland
The son of an accountant, Margaglio did not skate until he was 10, after he brought home a flyer from school advertising classes and was encouraged by his parents to have a go. He was naturally athletic, excelling at a number of sports, including soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball, and took to skating easily.

He was soon winning ice dancing competitions and in 1990 he began working with Paola Mezzadri, who was also Fusar-Poli’s coach. She paired the two up for the first time in 1994.

Margaglio has a home in Courmayeur, in the Aosta Valley, but since 2011 has spent a good deal of his time in Finland, where he has been head of that country’s ice dancing development programme.  He is married to German figure skater Jyrina Lorenz, with whom he had three sons, Gabriel, Sebastian and Julian.

The Mediolanum Forum is just 12km from Milan
The Mediolanum Forum is just 12km from Milan
Travel tip:

Milan’s major ice skating facility is the Mediolanum Forum located in Assago, about 12km (7.5 miles) southwest of the city. The 12,700-seat sports arena, which is primarily a venue for ice hockey, basketball, tennis and live concerts, also offers accomplished skaters the opportunity to practice on the rink, as well as lessons for beginners and others who want to improve their skills. Assago is also home to the Italian headquarters of the multinational food and drinks company NestlĂ©.

The alpine landscapes around Courmayeur offer extraordinarily spectacular views
The alpine landscapes around Courmayeur offer
extraordinarily spectacular views
Travel tip:

Courmayeur is one of the most beautiful of Italian alpine towns.  Situated at the foot of the southern side of Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco in Italian), at an elevation of 1,224 m (4,016 ft) above sea level, it is charming town of cobbled streets in which high-end boutiques rub shoulders with ancient churches, historic bars and contemporary ski lodges, with a backdrop of majestic, unadulterated mountain landscapes.  The area is popular with hikers during the summer and, of course, skiers during the winter, attracted to slopes with some of the best views in Italy and by the town's reputation as a magnet for the rich and famous.

More reading:

Alberto Tomba - Italy's greatest skier

Deborah Compagnoni's three Olympic titles

How a fighter pilot won Italy's first Olympic bobsleigh gold

Also on this day:

1625: The death of Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola

1892: The birth of racing driver Tazio Nuvolari

1975: The beatification of doctor and scientist Giuseppe Moscati


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8 August 2017

Danilo Gallinari – basketball player

Giant from Lodi province who plays in America’s NBA


Danilo Gallinari joined New York Knicks in 2008 after entering the draft
Danilo Gallinari joined New York Knicks
in 2008 after entering the draft
Danilo Gallinari, the only Italian-born player currently active in America’s National Basketball Association, was born on this day in 1988 in Sant’Angelo Lodigiani in Lombardy.  

Only nine Italian-born players have participated in the NBA – America’s premier basketball league – since its formation in 1946.  

Gallinari, who stands 6ft 10ins tall, has played for six NBA teams, the latest of which is Boston Celtics.

Previously he had played for New York Knicks,  under the coaching of Mike D’Antoni, is an American-born former player who is now an Italian citizen, the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Atlanta Hawks.  

Gallinari, whose father, Vittorio, played professional basketball for teams in Milan, Pavia, Bologna and Verona, began his career in 2004 with Casalpusterlengo, a third-level Italian team from a town about 25km (15 miles) from his home in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano.  

He moved up a tier in 2005 by joining Armani Jeans Milano and then Edimes Pavia, where in 2006 he was named best Italian player in the Italian League Second Division, despite missing half the season through injury.  Read more…

Danilo Gallinari, representing the  Italian national team in 2010
Danilo Gallinari, representing the
Italian national team in 2010
This earned him a move to his father’s old club, Olimpia Milano, in which he was named as the First Division’s best player under the age of 22 in his first season and topped the league’s overall efficiency ratings in 2007-08.

Gallinari also represented Olimpia Milano in the elite EuroLeague – basketball’s equivalent of the Champions League in football – scoring 27 points in his final game of the 2007-08 campaign against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

His move to the NBA came in 2008, when he took advantage of an escape clause in his Olimpia Milano contract that permitted him to take up any opportunity to play professionally in the United States and entered himself for the NBA draft.

New York Knicks acquired him as the sixth draft pick and gave him a two-year contract.

Gallinari’s time in the NBA has been bedevilled by injuries yet his performances have improved year on year.

He missed a large part of his debut 2008-09 season with back problems and, after sustaining an anterior ligament injury that ended his 2012-13 season at Denver early, he had to sit out the entire 2013-14 season as he underwent rehabilitation.

Gallinari, who plays as a small forward/power forward, was also sidelined for the final 22 games of the 2015-16 season with Denver because of an ankle injury.

He was the biggest acquisition of the summer for Los Angeles Clippers when he joined them in 2017.

Gallinari’s statistics, however, demonstrate how he has become an increasingly valuable player when fit.  In 2009, he set a career-high points haul of 30 for New York against Philadelphia 76ers; his current career-high stands at 47, which he recorded in a double-overtime loss to Dallas Mavericks for Denver Nuggets in 2015.

UPDATED: August 2022.

A sunlit Piazza della Vittoria
A sunlit Piazza della Vittoria
Travel tip:

Both Sant’Angelo Lodigiano and Casalpusterlengo are municipalities in the province of Lodi, an historic small city on the banks of the River Adda that was the property of the Visconti family and the Sforzas in the 15th and 16th centuries, when it had great value as the central town of a richly fertile agricultural area, which it is to this day.  Its prosperity was the consequence of a system of artificial rivers and channels, work on which began in the 13th century, that was created to irrigate what had previously been arid and unusable land. The heart of the city is the beautiful Piazza della Vittoria.

The Mediolanum Forum, home of Olimpio Milano
The Mediolanum Forum, home of Olimpio Milano
Travel tip:

The Olimpio Milano team, sometimes known as Emporio Armani Milano, play their home matches at the Mediolanum Forum, an indoor sports and concert arena with seats for 12,700 spectators, situated in the Assago suburb of Milan and now accessible by a direct Metro service from the centre of the city.  Assago is also home to the Italian headquarters of NestlĂ©.