The Garmin Beat Yesterday returned to their original format: the 9th edition of their annual ceremony yesterday awarded 5 definitely extraordinary sports stories. Making the house, or rather the new house (in Via del Ghisallo, in Milan) inaugurated for the occasion, Garmin Italia's CEO Stefano Viganò (you will soon read an interview with him by our director Pier Augusto Stagi) highlighted the uniqueness of a building looking towards the future, with autonomous lights and spaces for employee wellness, in line with the increasing importance of wellness in Garmin's production strategy.

With the praise of Federica Picchi, Undersecretary of Sport for the Lombardy Region, who emphasized the power of an initiative like Beat Yesterday in inspiring all of us through the values that sport can express in each person's life, the evening took place inside the Nanga Parbat 2016 room, dedicated to the feat of mountaineer Simone Moro. Here, along the walls, sporting achievements made with Garmin equipment are celebrated, starting from Moro's winter climb 8 years ago in Kashmir and including cycling successes like Ballan's World Championship, Hesjedal's Giro, and Ganna's hour record.

The well-known commentator Guido Meda interviewed the double Olympic gold medalists in sailing Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, discussing the importance of studies in being great athletes and looking towards future goals. The Tita-Banti duo awarded Maria Vittoria Marchesini and Giovanna Micol, part of the Luca Rossa Prada Pirelli crew that won the first Women's America's Cup. Two women of different ages, an architect and an Economics student, inspiring new generations of sailors. So much so that, surprisingly, their sailing achievement was "revealed" as the last piece of the hall of fame in the Nanga Parbat room.

The host of Linea Bianca tv programme Lino Zani interviewed the Olympic silver medalist in rowing Gabriel Soares, who approached his discipline as a child on Lake Como, shortly after coming to Italy from Brazil. Soares awarded Roberto Ragazzi, a freelance professional who, to raise awareness about glacier melting, walked and camped for over 160 kilometers, amid snow and wind for two weeks, on the Vatnajökull in Iceland. With a charity aspect, related to building an aqueduct to provide water to a very poor village in Burundi.

Sky's motorsport journalist Davide Camicioli interviewed the Paralympic bronze archer from Paris Daila Dameno (who told her "rebirth" through skiing, swimming and archery after a car accident that took away her ability to use her legs) and the gold medalist in team fencing Mara Navarria, who revealed a tasty secret related to preparing for the victorious final against the French on their home turf: Mara and her teammates had trained with the Marseillaise in their ears to get used to the atmosphere they would find at the Grand Palais. Dameno and Navarria awarded Francesca Gasperi, a passionate motorcyclist who crossed Asia Minor by motorcycle and then reached Madagascar, spending time with missionary Father Floriano. Goal: to raise funds to build a road connecting the Malagasy villages in the Southeast to the nearest hospital, 80 kilometers away.

Speaker and presenter Nicola Savino, with his unmistakable verve, interviewed the Olympic judoka Alice Bellandi, who explained her "philosophy of suffering" that brought her to the top of the five-ring world after overcoming an extremely difficult sporting period. Bellandi awarded Claudio Pellizzeni who, after resigning from the bank where he worked, embarked on a ten-year world tour to reach Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia without taking planes, traveling on a limited budget by land and sea, implementing what he renamed Trip Therapy. Pellizzeni was doubly inspiring because, in addition to sharing his experience, he spoke about type 1 diabetes, which he has lived with since he was 9 years old. And which did not prevent him from completing this traveling adventure.

Finally, a journalist and commentator well known to us, Andrea Berton, interviewed the swimmer Nicolò Martinenghi, first absolute gold medal for Italy in the Paris Olympics: his transition to swimming as a boy, despite initially dreaming of basketball, and the "holy card" of Alessandro Ballan (present in the audience as a Garmin testimonial, seated between Stefano Baldini and Vincenzo Nibali) still near his bed after winning the 2008 Varese World Championship. After a brief stage interaction with Linus, Martinenghi awarded another athlete who participated in the last Olympic Games: Diego Pettorossi, who competed in athletics (200 meters) as the only amateur, meaning not registered with a military sports group, missing the semifinals by just two hundredths of a second. A life of using vacation days and permits for competitions and training, until losing his job but securing Olympic qualification, with the goal now of making the final in Los Angeles 2028.

True, this year the cycling story was missing. As you saw, however, there were no shortage of cycling world personalities (biker Marco Aurelio Fontana was also there) and there are plenty of insights to explore between Garmin and cycling. In this regard, don't miss the upcoming episodes of the BlaBlaBike podcast!