July 2013. The Raul Guidobaldi Stadium in Rieti hosted the best under 20 athletes in Europe for a memorable edition of the European Athletics Junior Championships.
Four days of competition and an electric atmosphere that not only showcased the present talent but also foreshadowed the future: in the years to come, many of the young men and women on the track and in the field would become absolute key figures of world sport.
In those days, fans also discovered a generation destined to change the face of European athletics: young athletes who, between smiles and dreams, competed without realising they were already part of history. Years later, Rieti 2013 remains a precious snapshot: the meeting point between the past and the future of European athletics, a time when talent was still a promise but ready to become legend, etching their names in the annals of sports history.
Many of those future champions went on to become global athletics stars, winning gold medals at the Olympic Games or World Championships in individual events. From Rieti began the incredible adventure of Nafissatou Thiam, the Belgian who won the heptathlon at the Guidobaldi Stadium and launched a brilliant international career that culminated in three Olympic golds and two World titles.
Also triumphing in Italy were future champions such as Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (200m) and Germany’s Malaika Mihambo (long jump), who wrote their names in athletics history, as well as middle-distance runner Jake Wightman (GB), king of the 1500 metres.
On the podium in Rieti, though not gold medallists, were Spanish race walker Álvaro Martín and Croatian javelin thrower Sara Kolak, who in later years would soar to Olympic gold.
But those mentioned are only a few of the athletes who shone during those four days in Rieti, in the stadium that in 2026 will once again give many young talents—the best in Europe—the chance to start dreaming.