Sky Arte, Dreams of Glory by Giorgio Porrà – FROM VITTORIO POZZO TO ERCOLE BALDINI, PASSING THROUGH ONDINA VALLA, NEDO NADI, DUILIO LOI AND RENZO PASOLINI
If the images of the Tokyo Olympic champions are still fresh and vivid in our minds, there are at the same time stories of great sportsmen of the past on which time inexorably deposits a patina of dust. The journalist takes care of giving it new luster Giorgio Porrà that presents Dreams of Glory – Sports Stories, the new Sky Arte production in collaboration with Sky Sport, premiered on Sky Arte (Sky channels 120 and 400), from tomorrow, 7 September, every Tuesday, at 9.15 pm. In rerun, from 8 September, on Sky Sport Arena, every Wednesday at 20.30, and from 11 September, on Sky Sport Uno, every Saturday, at midnight.
At the center of the plot are six stories of great champions of the past, engaged in as many sports disciplines, who with their victories have left an indelible mark not only in sport, but also in society, in customs and in the collective imagination of the whole country. It begins Tuesday 7 September with a double episode dedicated to Vittorio Pozzo it’s at Ondina Valla.
With the support of the archive images of the Istituto Luce, the newspaper clippings of the articles of the time and the statements of Fabio Capello, Giorgio Porrà reconstructs the sporting and human vicissitudes of Vittorio Pozzo, the most successful coach of the Italian national football team, the first to win two consecutive editions of the World Cup in 1934 and 1938, as well as winning an Olympic medal and two international cups, forerunners of the European Championships. A passionate, enthusiastic, but stern man, who notes everything in his notebooks and personally chooses his players. His only “fault” is that of having triumphed in the years of fascism and for this reason, once the war is over, he becomes an uncomfortable figure and is therefore marginalized by the football institutions. On his tomb stands an emblematic plaque: “He lives in the future, where the blue of the shirts becomes the blue of the skies. The coach who won everything in the wrong period ”.
From football we then move on to athletics with the feats of Ondina Valla, the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold, in the 80 meters hurdles, in Berlin, in 1936. Giorgio Porrà retraces his exploits, from his first successes in elementary school to his exploits at the Games, where he is the protagonist, together with his friend and rival Claudia Testoni, of one of the most beautiful seasons ever in women’s athletics. Ondina Valle overcomes both the Church’s opposition to women’s sport and that of the regime, becoming an icon not only on the track.
In the following weeks the goal of Dreams of Glory – Tales of Sports moves up Nedo Nadi, the only fencer capable of winning a gold medal in all three weapons during the same Olympics (in Antwerp 1920), Duilio Loi, junior welterweight world champion, Renzo Pasolini, passionate and fearless motorcyclist, ed Ercole Baldini, unbeatable cyclist from Romagna, capable of winning everything from 1956 to 1958, both on the track and on the road.
Sogni di Gloria is a Sky Arte production in collaboration with Sky Sport, produced by Good Day Films in collaboration with UnipolSai Assicurazioni and with the scientific support of the Corriere della Sera Foundation