WTI Magazine #42    2014 September, 3
Author : Simone Callisto Manca      Translation by:

Federica Pellegrini, Tania Cagnotto, Martina Grimaldi, and not only: behind the "star" of Italian swimming there is a growing generation of young and very young that, after the disappointment of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the transition of the 2013 World Championship in Barcellona, Spain, does really well and gives us hope for the future of this sport in our country.

At the European Championships in Berlin, Germany, that took place this summer between August 13 and 24, the Italian team has in fact won 23 medals, ranking third behind Great Britain and Russia, according to the absolute number of podiums. In the final ranking medal successes are counted, but right after being weighed: Italy, with our 8 gold medals, 3 silvers and 12 bronzes, did win 4 medals more than Russia, which has stopped at 19; however, with 9 gold medals, Russia ended up ahead of the Italian team.

The Italian stars did not disappoint. There's very little left to say about Federica Pellegrini. In a sport like swimming, where you start young and where many athletes end their careers often described as obsessive and alienating, maintaining the levels of "la Divina" (the Divine, as she is called in Italy) for 10 years is a true miracle. Federica started her winning streak at the 2004 Olympics games in Athens, Greece (silver in the front crawl) and from there she no longer stopped, among many joys and many sorrows: the death in the aftermath of the 2009 World Championships in Rome of her coach and mentor Alberto Castagnetti; the frequent panic attacks in the water; the bad result in London 2012, which many thought was the sad end of her career). Ten years later, many of the historic rivals of Federica Pellegrini have withdrawn (one above all, French Laure Manaudou) and she heads straight to 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, after which she will likely retire, at 28 years old.

In Berlin 2014 Federica won 3 medals (gold in the 200 front crawl and in the 4x200 front crawl, bronze in the 4x100 front crawl) but everybody will always particularly remember her "miracle" in the 4x200 front crawl, when as the last athlete swimming the relay race she literally "ate" in the last 30 meters the 2 seconds that separated her from her rival Swedish ahead of her, obtaining a result almost impossible to achieve.

Tania Cagnotto has instead been confirmed as the queen of diving: three podiums for her, two gold medals (in the springboard from 1 meter and in the synchro from 3 meters, with Francesca Dallapè) and a silver medal (in the springboard from 3 meters).So many times among the top three in the European and World Championships, Tania now expects Rio de Janeiro 2016 to go after the only recognition she misses: an Olympic medal, which always wryly escaped (in London 2012 she arrived fourth, twice!).

Martina Grimaldi is now a certainty, and in the hardest discipline at all: open water 25 kilometers swimming. After the bronze medal in London 2012, when she was one of the few to save in the Italian swimming team, and after the gold medal in Barcelona 2013, in the European Championship she won again, another gold, after a very hard race.

Behind the main stars of the Italian swimming team there were also interesting confirmations and important news. Among the first we can mention Gregorio Paltrinieri, the 20 year old of Carpi who has won 2 gold medals in 800 and 1500 meters front crawl (and Gabriele Detti, another Italian, won two bronze medals), after having won a bronze medal in Barcellona 2013 too. At 32, instead, Filippo Magnini continues to win: in Berlin he got a bronze medal in the 4x100 front crawl. In the diving categories we also are happy to mention Noemi Batki, a wonderful silver medal in the 10 meters platform diving.

Of course, the level of the Europeans is not to the one of the World Cup or the Olympic Games, missing - just to give an example - Americans and Australians, who have always been masters in the swimming world: but Berlin 2014 gives a really great confidence boost for a movement that only two years ago was risking to get hysterical, either for poor results and for the unpleasant exchange of accusations among the athletes, between athletes and executives, technicians and athletes, in a climate of never-ending fight right in front of notebooks and cameras.