They met in 1949. Fausto Coppi was 30 years old, at the peak of his career with his first Giro-Tour double and lived in Sestri Ponente. Abdon Pamich was 16 years old, an Istrian refugee living in the Castagna locality, in the municipality of Serra Ricco, in the Genoese hinterland. Coppi raced, Pamich – between school and fields, chickens and rabbits, and even a sheep – also did. Coppi on a bicycle, Pamich on foot, but also by bus, tram, train and… bike. They met several times while Coppi was training and Pamich, on a day off, was heading to the sea.

The Olympic champion Pamich – a bronze in Rome 1960, a gold in Tokyo 1964 – is perhaps the Coppi of race walking. Tomorrow, October 3rd, he will turn 93 years old. His life encompasses far more than sport, where he also won two European golds and a silver, three Mediterranean Games golds and 40 Italian titles across 10, 20 and 50 km events. It is a story, an adventure, a twentieth-century epic, which he recounted in the autobiographical "Memoirs of a Race Walker" (Biblioteca dell'immagine, 2016, with a preface by Bruno Pizzul) and which also reached television with the film "The Race Walker – the true story of Abdon Pamich" (by Alessandro Casale, 2026). A story of Italy.

From home to school, young Abdon would leave at seven in the morning, take the bus to Bolzaneto, then the tram to Genoa until Piazza Caricamento, then continue on foot and arrive at Piazza della Zecca. "When I finally got a bicycle, things improved, it meant being more free". Free, in summer, to go to the sea. "After fulfilling my duties as a farmhand, after lunch I would mount my bike and, following a route that was anything but easy, 25 kilometers long, I would head to a beautiful beach in the Vesima locality, just before Arenzano, where I could swim until exhaustion, to return at dusk. The route was all ups and downs made harder by having a bike without gears, but at that time this was an insignificant detail". And it was precisely on that stretch of road, when summer ended, that "I sometimes crossed paths with Fausto Coppi".

Pamich would become a racer – a champion – without a bicycle. His coach accompanied him on a bicycle, cyclists and fans followed him on bicycles. However, to vary his training, Abdon would pedal. "Sport had become a life habit for me, even without competitive goals – he writes in "Memoirs of a Race Walker" -. I enjoyed changing disciplines, which I found very entertaining: I would switch from cross-country skiing, to swimming, to cycling, to tennis, to running. This made me feel good and in excellent physical condition, without ever neglecting to race walk". He would continue competing until he turned 43. Like, but on pedals, Costante Girardengo.