A special guest for the day of the naming of the Sanpolino field Brescia to Gabre Gabric. A few hours before the start of the final A of the Societari allievi, the ceremony organized by the Municipality of Brescia to dedicate the structure to one of the pioneers of Italian women's athletics welcomes the Olympic champion of the 100 meters and the 4x100 relay Marcell Jacobs, who lived for a long time in Desenzano del Garda, a few kilometers from the provincial capital. “I am happy that Brescia has a new facility – the thoughts of the European 100m record holder alongside a moved Lyana Calves and of Laurent Octoz, daughter and granddaughter of Gabre Gabric -, when I lived here there was no opportunity like this. I have two messages, one for parents and one for kids. To parents I say to always encourage their children to believe in their desires, not just in sports; to kids I say to believe in dreams: athletics taught me a lot, nobody gives you anything for free, I experienced many defeats but reaching the top gives a priceless feeling”.

In front of a delegation of the Fiamme Oro (among them the blue Ayomide Folorunso and Yassine Rachik but also the National skier Marta Lipsticks, former high-level multiplier) the ceremony was opened by the mayor Emilio Del Bono: “Sport has the infinite capacity to unite and go beyond barriers: Sanpolino is the youngest neighborhood in Brescia. The Calvesi field is also close to completion of the works, for which we have committed 3,5 million euros”.

After the intervention of the councilor for housing and social housing of the Lombardy Region Alessandro Mattinzoli and the councilor for urban regeneration of the Municipality of Brescia Walter Muchetti it was Marco's turn Riva, president of CONI Lombardia: “There are five key words: vision, sharing, sustainability, courage and culture of sport”. Grazia Maria Vanni, vice-president of FIDAL, brings greetings from president Stefano Mei: "As a Lombard, I know the path needed to get to this day. Sport is an investment in prevention and health". The Federal Council was also present with Gianfranco Lucchi and Simone CairoliThe ceremony ended with the cutting of the ribbon, held by two other Italian athletes such as Desirée Red and Desola Oki: Marcell Jacobs and Lyana Calvesi gave the significant blow of the scissors.

Caesar Rizzi (FIDAL Lombardy) 

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The woman who lived many times passed away on December 16, 2015, at the age of 101. She was the Italian with the most remote service record, the only survivor of the 1936 Berlin Games. Her name was Ljubica – in Slavic, love – but for everyone she was Gabre, Gabre Gabric, lived under many flags, since the one of her birth, which took place under the label “K und K”, Koenig und Kaiser, which appeared next to the image of Franz Joseph. Dalmatia, when she came into the world, was Imperial Regia.

An old black and white photo portrays her as beautiful and mysterious, like an adventurer from Eric Ambler's plots.

Gabre's age was not known exactly: perhaps she was born in 17, but the Ellis Island records, where she landed on the steamship "President Wilson" in 1923, attest that the girl was 9 years old: October 17, 1914. Her father Martin, a former officer, had no objections when the emigration officer wrote that date, that age. But the American Gabre did not last long: shortly thereafter she returned to Dalmatia, to Zara, and found herself a subject of Vittorio Emanuele III. Italian.

It is a small collection of data, of facts that contribute to making her a character handed down from a vanished world, the protagonist of a century that a famous English historian defined as short and that served her for many things: to bring her elegant figure to the discus platforms (it was not yet the time of certain dragons: the parables just beyond 40 meters attest to this) and to become the founder of one of the great dynasties of Italian athletics: Gabric-Calvesi-Ottoz should be written in succession, without punctuation.

Gabre has always been quick-spoken. When she went to the Berlin Games, she happened to meet Adolf Hitler and called him “a small, insignificant person, but with bestial eyes”. The chancellor was quite a regular at the Olympiastadion and was naturally present that day for the victory of Gisela Mauermayer, a card-carrying member of the National Socialist Party and with some problems at the end of the war. Gabre finished tenth to gain positions (sixth) two years later at the European Championships in Vienna, the first for girls.

During the war he won two of his four Italian titles and, as soon as the conflict was over, he was part of the adventurous expedition that, on a rickety Dakota, set sail for the European Championships in Oslo, the first event that brought athletes together again in the name of peace and in memory of those who had been swept away. He closed with London '48 and with 22 blue jerseys.

The Brescia years continue over time, alongside her husband Sandro Calvesi, a lecturer in the science and technique of obstacles, who dies in 1980: the polyglot Gabre finds herself chatting with Sandro's students who come from France and Great Britain. There is also a bespectacled boy, born on the shores of the Mediterranean, from Aosta, nice, mischievous. Eddy Ottoz will marry Liana Calvesi and Gabre will become the grandmother of Laurent, Pilar and Patrick. A unique grandmother who even as she grows older, entering her third and fourth years, does not give up going to test the shot put and discus platform. Those who have learned those gestures cannot forget them, and end up sharing them with those who, in their youth, dedicated themselves to other spheres. One is a magnificent fellow countryman of hers, Ottavio Missoni. A great breed, the Dalmatians. The women have always been beautiful and the Venetians on that coast recruited the fanti de mar, the first marines in history, among the men.

Among the Masters, Gabre has collected fourteen world and European titles and a flurry of records for a myriad of age categories.

 

Source: Fidal (Italian Athletics Federation)