Great disappointment and great bitterness for Italian swimming at the Rio 2016 Olympics: Federica Pellegrini fails the test and arrives only fourth in the final of the women's 200m freestyle, finishing off the podium by twenty-six hundredths of a second, behind the fantastic Katie Ledecky, by Sarah Sjostrom and Australian Emma McKeon.
The Olympic Games no longer bring luck to our champion who, like four years ago in London, reaps a terrible disappointment in "her" race. Even if gold was out of reach, and silver very difficult, the bronze medal went to McKeon was a more than achievable goal for Federica, who in the heat was unable to give herself an explanation for a race below expectations : “I can't explain it. Feelings different from those of yesterday afternoon. I am dead. I arrived at the last 50 that I didn't have any more”.
But our standard-bearer doesn't want to hear about a race faced badly head-on: "I'm 28 years old, if I still hear that I suffered the race head-on, I'll punch everyone". And again: "Today I didn't choose anything at all, I never had good sensations, this is the truth".
At twenty-eight, a life for a swimmer, for Pellegrini it may have been the last chance for an Olympic joy, even if the head must be raised immediately to look for a very difficult podium in the 4×200m.
