The triumph of Italian swimming at the recent events World Cup in Kazan, in Russia, has hit the general interest so much that even the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella sent his congratulations to Federnuoto for the 14 world championship medals won. On Sunday evening, however, the premier Matteo Renzi personally contacted the president of Fin Paolo Barelli to invite the entire swimming, water polo, synchro, diving and open water swimming delegation to a meeting to be organized soon. The congratulations also came this morning to the President of Coni, Giovanni Malago, both for the medals and for the beautiful image that CONI was able to give abroad of Italy and of the sports movement that revolves around swimming in our country.
To be honest, it wasn't difficult to do better than the previous editions of the world championships, both in the short course and in the long course. The technical director Cesare Butini he hoped to “double Barcelona 2013” (two podiums). The athletes in the pool undoubtedly did better. That a part of the merit is to be attributed to the control of the various territorial realities by the technical manager or, in any case, the constant one of the runners young and old of federal centers it doesn't matter, because this success demonstrates that the sports movement that revolves around swimming works and does so in spite of everything.
Despite the opposing fronts between Swimming federation e Cones, despite the vitriolic press releases, the accusations, the complaints, the appeals to the courts (still not concluded). Despite the organizational difficulties, the spaces to share and the controversies triggered – these yes, even by the athletes themselves – for the choice of coaches (Paltrinieri's coach – who has now taken his beautiful revenge – in unsuspecting times, had been attacked by Federica Pellegrini who did not consider him adequate for her athletic preparation in view of the World Cup).
In short, it was perhaps his own who made his way through all these obstacles the workout, hard work, determination. However, those who have been on the edge of the pool for several decades know that nothing should be taken for granted. And that not even a large medal table like that of the Russian world championship is an insurance on the future, especially since two medals, those of the synchronized, have come from a new discipline, that of the mixed duo. In the past we have shown that we have been very shrewd in launching ourselves immediately into new adventures, as in the case of synchronized diving, where we almost always got on the podium initially. But it must also be said that as soon as other nations began to pay more attention to these specialties, we almost disappeared. We also have several athletes at the end of their careers who have already declared that this was their last world championship.
The medals from Kazan will certainly not be enough to put an end to the disputes - which damage not only swimming, but all of Italian sport - but these splendid performances will certainly show the way forward for the youngest, for those who were not there in Russia, but it will certainly be in Hungary (World Cup 2017) or South Korea (World Cup 2019). But who are the real protagonists of this exploit, which brings Italian swimming back to the highest levels, as it hasn't happened for several years? These are: Gregorio Paltrinieri, gold in the 1500 freestyle and silver in the 800, of Tania Cagnotto, gold from the 1m springboard and bronze in the 3m springboard, by Simone Ruffini e Matthew Furlan, respectively gold and bronze in the 25 Km, of Federica Pellegrini, silver in the 200m freestyle, by Erica Musso, Alice Mizzau, Chiara Masini Luccetti and Federica Pellegrini, silver in the 4×200 freestyle, by Marco Bears, Luke Doctor, Michael Santucci e Filippo Magnini, bronze in the 4×100 freestyle, by Maicol Verzotto and Tania Cagnotto, bronze in the 3m synchro mixed springboard, by Matteo Furlan, bronze in the 5km, by George Minisini e Mariangela Perrupato, bronze in the synchronized freestyle of mixed duo, by Manila Flamini and Giorgio Minisini, bronze in the technical synchro of the mixed duo, finally of all the components of the Setterosa team, bronze in water polo.
