The Fair Play Menarini Ambassadors lit up the 2026 European Championships in athletics and swimming, starring in both Birmingham and Paris. On the track and in the field, in the pool and in open water, eight athletes with ties to the Award won medals and broke records across a wide range of events, cementing their standing on the international stage.
Birmingham: Fair Play Menarini Ambassadors power Italian athletics to new heights
Nadia Battocletti (Photo by Sona Maleterova/Getty Images)
Nadia Battocletti proved once again that she has no equal in European distance running. Following her double triumph at Rome 2024, the Italian struck gold again in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres, clocking 15:37.84 and 31:41.17 respectively. Her second consecutive European double underlines her ability to keep a remarkably cool head across two races that make very different demands in pace and tactics.

Andy Díaz (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Andy Diaz produced one of the outstanding performances of the championships in the triple jump. His leap of 18.15 metres brought him gold and a new Italian record, and it stands as the fourth best jump of all time, just 14 centimetres shy of Jonathan Edwards’s world record. It is a result that secures his place among the greats of the discipline.

Armand Duplantis (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
Armand Duplantis also added a new title to an already extraordinary career. In the pole vault he won his fourth consecutive European gold, clearing 6.15 metres in a competition made more demanding by the challenge of Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis. For the Swedish champion it is another triumph in an event he continues to approach with the highest ambition.

Larissa Iapichino (Photo: Fair Play Menarini International Awards - 2023 Edition)
Larissa Iapichino claimed gold in the long jump with 7.00 metres, edging out Jazmin Sawyers by a single centimetre. Won by the slimmest of margins, the victory gives her a first outdoor European title to go with two Diamond League Final wins and a European indoor gold.

Gianmarco Tamberi (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Gianmarco Tamberi, gold medallist in the high jump with 2.32 metres, thrilled the crowd and stirred great emotion. For him it marks a return to the very top, as well as a fourth European title, a result that joins his Olympic gold from Tokyo 2020 and the world title he won in Budapest in 2023.

Sofia Fiorini (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Finally, one of the most meaningful stories is that of Sofia Fiorini. Honoured in 2021 with the Fiamme Gialle “Study and Sport” Special Prize, in Birmingham she won gold in the first women’s marathon race walk ever held at the European Championships, finishing in 3:15:11. The result also earned her the world record, as she improved her personal best by more than ten minutes and surpassed the previous official mark.
Paris: the medals keep flowing at the European Swimming Championships
Gregorio Paltrinieri (Photo by Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)
The Fair Play Menarini Ambassadors made their mark in the water too. In Paris, racing in the Seine, Gregorio Paltrinieri won bronze in the 5 km and silver in the 4x1500 metres mixed relay, taking his European Championship medal tally to 15.

Benedetta Pilato (Photo by DBM/Insidefoto/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
In the pool, meanwhile, Benedetta Pilato collected silver in the 50 metres breaststroke, bronze in the 100 metres breaststroke and another silver in the 4x100 medley relay, fine form that she is confirming at the Mediterranean Games currently under way in Taranto.
Eight athletes across a host of different events delivered a summer of results and emotion, one that deepens the bond between the Fair Play Menarini International Prize and the biggest stages in world sport.

