Following its opening event in CONI’s Hall of Honour, the Fair Play Menarini International Award has arrived in Florence, the city set to host the closing gala of its 30th edition on 2 July. The press conference on 15 June was the ideal moment to unveil two more names joining an already star-studded cast.

Bebe Vio and Fabio Caressa will share the stage at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with the champions confirmed earlier in Rome. The Paralympic foil champion and the sports broadcaster — this year’s winner of the Franco Lauro “Narrating Emotions” Special Prize — join a roster that features Armand Duplantis, Gianfranco Zola, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Achille Polonara, Antonella Palmisano, Chiara Mazzel, Daniele Garozzo, Simone Anzani and the speed-skating trio of Davide Ghiotto, Michele Malfatti and Andrea Giovannini.

Florence also marked another milestone: the Fiamme Gialle “Study and Sport” Special Prize, presented this year to Azzurra Severini. Born in 2006, Severini is one of the brightest prospects in beach sprint: a form of coastal rowing that blends sprinting across sand with speed and boat-handling skill, and which will make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028. She has already won gold for Italy at the 2024 European Championships in Gdańsk in the mixed double, adding silver in the Coastal Senior Mix Duo a year later. All of this she has balanced with academic excellence, graduating with top marks.

Created by the Fair Play Menarini Foundation together with CONI Toscana and the Guardia di Finanza sports groups, the award recognises athletes whose sporting talent, studies and personal growth advance side by side.

Beyond the prize itself, Severini will spend time training at the Guardia di Finanza Sports Centre in Castelporziano, sharing a high-level environment with the award’s two other finalists, rower Tancredi Mancuso and swimmer Letizia Gioffredi.

The thinking behind the award was set out by Foundation board members Luca Lastrucci, Valeria Speroni Cardi and Filippo Paganelli: «Every great champion started out as a young person with a dream and the determination to pursue it. The Fiamme Gialle “Study and Sport” Special Prize exists precisely to recognise those who let talent, hard work and personal growth pull in the same direction».

The presentation also drew remarks from the President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, Florence’s Sports Councillor, Letizia Perini, and the Prize Ambassador, Giancarlo Antognoni. Giani noted that, now in its thirtieth year, the Award continues to champion a sporting culture rooted in genuine values, one that looks to the future through its young people and shows that competing at the highest level and excelling in the classroom need not be at odds.

With this gathering at the Società Canottieri Firenze, the 30th Fair Play Menarini enters its decisive stretch. Events continue on Wednesday 1 July with a gala dinner at Piazzale Michelangelo, ahead of the closing ceremony on 2 July at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where the evening will be enriched by a partnership with Sky TG24 and storytellers of the calibre of Federico Buffa.