Could we have seen Fabio Basile coming?

One of the most spectacular, if not the best gift of the Olympic Games, was the victory of Fabio Basile of Italy. The analists are thinking, could we have forecasted this surprise victory? Probably not, it’s a typical example of a day where everything found its place….just like in 2000 when Pino Maddaloni won gold in Sydney… or just like Lasha Shavdatuashvili in 2012 when he won the title in London in the same weight category. So isn’t there any logics in the victory of Basile?

The comparison with Shavdatuashvili is striking. Basile won about each title in Italy starting with Cadet Championships, Junior Championships and his first senior title when he was 17 years, in 2012 when Shavdatuashvili had his best year. Remember that Shavdatuashvili won the European U20 title in 2011, Basile won the U23 title in 2015. Shavdatuashvili took European Senior bronze in 2012, Basile won European bronze this year in Kazan.

In Europe Basile is actually known for years in all categories. He won European Cadet silver in 2010, European U23 bronze in 2012 when he was 18 years young and European Junior bronze in 2014, still U60kg. Last year he won the European U23 title in Bratislava U66kg.

Shavdatuashvili wasn’t as good as Basile in his youth years, although he also won Junior titles, but only since 2011, so he grew faster and also won bronze at the World Championships for Junior in 2011. He won his first World Cup medal in 2012 in Tbilisi, but also abroad in Prague. The year after his Olympic title Shavdatuashvili won the European title in 2013 in Budapest, so we can wrote down Basile for Poland next year. Basile won his first World Cup medal last year in Glasgow and won the African Open beginning of this year in Casablanca, all comparable to Shavdatuashvili. A last good practice in March 2016 where he won silver at the Grand Prix in Tbilisi, in the final against the later European Champion Margvelashvili, who peaked too early in Kazan.

Obviously an Olympic title is depending on many factors and Basile qualified in the latest moment, but this is exactly the art to peak when you need to. The Italians have been able to unwrap a package each Olympic Games: Maddaloni, Morico, Quintavalle, Forciniti, Basile…and Giuffrida.

The difference is that during the day Basile showed he was the champion, he had the vibe, he had the confidence and threw his first three opponents for ippon in a group of death with Seidl, Shikhalizada and Davaadorj. He was never in danger against another surprise Adrian Gomboc and threw An for ippon in the second minute.

Could we have seen it coming? Basile was the new Shavdatuashvili… in advance, we could have known that, but the final touch was Basile himself, a great champion who will rise the next years with appealing performances.