August 6, 1995, (editor's note: the exact day on the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima) Michele Didoni won the World Championship on 20 km road walk.
Michele Didoni is the second Italian to win the world title in 20km road walk in 1983 (then will be added to the list in 1997 Anna Rita Sidoti and Ivano Brugnetti in 1999), and he does so as the youngest winner of a world having turned 21 year on March 7 (born in 1974).
His victory in Goteborg was one of the sensational moments of Italian race walking with two silver medals won by Elisabetta Perrone (10 Km) and Gianni Perricelli (50 Km), and two finalists: Arturo Di Mezza 7th in 50 Km and Rossella Giordano 6th in the 10 Km.
Michele Didoni was a pure talent of race walk.
In the junior categories he has routed the field winning Italian record in repetition and the European Junior title in San Sebastian in 1993 with 40:05.62 (he was already third at just 17 years old at the previous Europeans held in Thessaloniki - 42:16.68).
In the senior category the international debut takes place at the European Indoor Championships in Paris in 1993 where he finished 4th (19:01.03) and the European Championships in the summer outdoors where it finishes in 10th position (1:23:21).
At Olympic Games he is 34th in Atlanta and 11th in Sydney.
Didoni participated in four editions of World Championships: in addition to gold in Gothenburg he will be 7th in Athens, 10th in Seville and 16th in Paris.
Coached by Pietro Pastorini, who forged generations of young walkers in Milan bringing international fame mainly with Didoni, Perricelli and Alfridi, Michele Didoni was the “20km racer” that certainly got less than his talent left presage after the victory in Gothenburg, but its era as offered from a technical standpoint. Growing up in the “Milan school" followed, along with Gianni Perricelli by Pastorini, in those years the way of a constant research for technical and methodological characterized the Italian race walking, growing in relationship with great champions and technical absolute level.
Goteborg was not an unexpected victory. Meanwhile, it was preceded by a great 5th place in the World Cup race in Beijing and a steady growth during the season.
Who assisted that year at the Italian championships in Cesenatico, where he finished second in 38:48, he had already essentially the framework of what would eventually be a few weeks later in Goteborg, with its light and shadows announced for the Italian race walk. In that race either as was conducted, above all, as from technical point of view Didoni was excellent, at times overwhelming, just as he knew to do then in Gothenburg dominating the final part of the race with determination, capacity for suffering and technical class.
In the men's speed events, despite the successes obtained after, certainly Italy no longer has expressed a talent so pure performance between capacity and technical walk.
Michele Didoni was a symbol of the Italian walk in its most prosperous period, namely the '90s, forming together with Giovanni De Benedictis, Gianni Perricelli, Arturo Di Mezza, Ivano Brugnetti, Alessandro Gandellini, Lorenzo Civalero, Ileana Salvador, Anna Rita Sidoti, Erika Alfridi, Elisabetta Perrone, Rossella Giordano a formidable team of athletes able to go up on all podiums world.
Maurizio Damilano
Michele Didoni in Goteborg 1995
The key moment of the race