#StoriediSport: Jury Chechi

Looking at the palmares of Jury Chechi one cannot fail to be impressed. Whatever could be won, he won it. That little guy from Tuscany was able to amaze everyone and dominate the ring speciality in the 1990s.

The name Jury awarded to him by his parents in honour of the Russian cosmonaut Gagarin, the first man to fly in space, seems almost a sign of destiny. He is not an astronaut but he too is able to fly. He does not fly in space but on rings.

A passion born almost by chance (fortunately!), thanks to his sister who practises artistic gymnastics. And so, watching the children in that gym on the apparatus and mats, he decided to try it too, despite a puny body not really suited to the speciality. But that body becomes a rock-hard physique, with such perfect musculature that if Leonardo Da Vinci had he been alive, he would have taken him as a model for his studies of the human body.

Jury Chechi He is also characterised by his strong personality and tenacity, traits that enable him to overcome serious injuries several times and come back stronger and more successful than before.
His great career as a gymnast began in 1976 at only 7 years of age and, after only one year, he already won the Tuscan Regional Championship. If good mornings are any indication...

In 1984 he joined the National Junior Team moving to Varese at Varesina Gymnastics Society where he specialised in the ring discipline. Thus began the escalation of Jury Chechi. Under the guidance of his coach Bruno Franceschettiin six years, he won everything: six consecutive Italian titles, the Mediterranean Games, the Universiade, 4 Europeans e 5 World Championships. In particular the Athens Mediterranean Games are a real treat for Jury Chechi who won 6 gold medals on the rings, floor exercise, pommel horse, symmetrical parallel bars, in the overall individual and team competitions respectively. A true triumph that ensured him, by right, the favour of the odds at the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, the only trophy missing from the multi-decorated trophy cabinet.

But luck is not on his side and, a month before the races, during a training session, Jury ruptured his Achilles tendon. Injury that forced him to give up the kermesse and the Five Circles dream.
Jury is strong, not only physically, and overcomes his injury in a big way. The following year he won the championship five times in a row. World (1993-1997), becoming the first gymnast in history to win five consecutive gold medals in a speciality.

It is the 1996However, the year in which he reached the peak of his career. We are on the night of 28-29 July at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta for the Olympics. It also arrived here with favourable odds, Jury Chechi performs a perfect exercise that the jury evaluates 9.887a very high score. He immediately realised what he had done and rejoiced hugged his coach. After seven years and numerous victories, it is finally Olympic gold!

32 years after Italy's last Olympic victory in gymnastics, by Franco Menichelli at Tokyo '64 Gamesanother Italian manages to win gold in the Five Circles event.

"Fly, fly, fly, fly to the podium, fly to the podium Jury Chechi, fly, you did it Jury. Jury you did it, Jury did it, this is a perfect exercise, perfect, it's perfect, it's a gold exercise, it's a gold exercise...! 9,887: it's gold medal, it's gold medal, it's gold, 9,887. It is truly the end of a chase that has lasted too long, it is the most beautiful gold medal of these Olympics for Italy, because it was built with emotion, with patience, with tenacity, with will, with grit, and there is all Jury Chechi in these emotions..."the emotional and unforgettable words of the commentator Rai.

In '97, after winning gold at the World Championships in Lausanne, at Catania Universiade and the Bari Mediterranean Games, announces his retirement.
But the love for the sport is too great and Chechi decides to get back on track by aiming the Sydney Olympics of 2000.
Bad luck, however, visited him again and during athletic training he ruptured a biceps brachial tendon forcing him to miss the Olympics for the second time in his career.

After another announcement of retirement, a promise made to his father, who was hospitalised at the time, took him back to the rings, ready to prepare for Athens 2004. Here, as Italian flag-bearer, at almost 35 years of age, he won an incredible bronze medal.

At 35, 1 gold Olympic, 5 hours World Championships, 4 gold Europeans, 3 hours at Universiade and 13 golds at the Mediterranean Games, ends the career of the "Lord of the Rings". A career made up of many sacrifices, a lot of bad luck but above all many victories.