Ilaria Accame

Happy birthday to Italy’s Ilaria Accame, an Olympian, a national record holder, and now a European medallist.

Two weeks ago in Birmingham, Ilaria ran the opening leg of Italy’s 4x400m in the heats, split 52.1, and put her country into the final third-fastest of everyone there. Italy took bronze, the nation’s first women’s 4x400m medal at a European Championships in a decade, and she is a bronze medallist. Italian media said it plainly: her contribution in the heats was fundamental.

She has been Italy’s lead-off runner for years. In Rome in 2024 she opened the relay that ran 3:23.40 and set the Italian national record, still standing. That August she went to the Paris Olympics and ran the first leg there too, in 52.43. She is a European U23 semi-finalist and an Italian U23 champion, and in Florence in July she ran 52.34, her fastest 400m in two years.

She races for the Aeronautica Militare, the Italian Air Force sports group — Italy’s professional backbone, and an affiliation you earn by being rated a full national-team athlete. She is studying law at Genoa alongside it, and Finale Ligure named her its Athlete of the Year in January.

Buon compleanno, Ilaria! Tanti auguri e cento di questi giorni — il Ponente tifa per te. Forza! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇮🇹