Italy’s full roster for this month’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan has been officially revealed, with the lineup consisting of 21 men and 15 women for the pool, plus 3 more athletes in open water.
33-year-old Federica Pellegrini leads the women as the captain of the national swimming team, with this year’s Games representing the icon’s 5th Olympic appearance. Contrast that to Italy’s youngest member of Giulia Vetrano who is making her Olympic debut at just 15 years of age. Vetrano is set to race in the women’s 4x200m free relay.
Reigning world champions Gregorio Paltrinieri and Simona Quadarella are both on the lineup, with the former recovering from mono as disclosed by the Italian Swimming Federation just last month.
National record holders Federico Burdisso, Nicolo Marginenghi, Alessandro Miressi and Gabriele Detti are among the men vying for Olympic glory, along with newcomer Santo Condorelli. Condorelli was among those added at the 11th hour via his 100m free performance at the Sette Colli Trophy.
Francesca Fangio was another late addition to the roster, with the 25-year-old powering her way to a new Italian national record and Olympic-qualifying mark in the 200m breast at Sette Colli to etch her name onto the women’s roster.
Benedetta Pilato, just 16 years of age, is set to head to Tokyo right after racing at the European Junior Championships.
At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the nation of Italy finished 9th in the overall swimming medal table, anchored by Paltrinieri’s gold medal in the men’s 1500m free. Rachele Bruni was also a gold medalist, reaping the top prize in the women’s 10k open water.
Detti was the other Italian medalist, clinching bronze in the 400m and 1500m free events.
Men
Domenico Acerenza (Fiamme Oro / CC Napoli)
Stefano Ballo (Army / Time Limit)
Federico Burdisso (Army / Aurelia Swimming)
Giacomo Carini (Yellow Flames / Can. Vittorino da Feltre)
Thomas Ceccon (Fiamme Gold / Leosport)
Matteo Ciampi (Army / Livorno Aquatics)
Santo Yukio Condorelli (Aurelia Swimming)
Gabriele Detti (Army / In Sport Rane Rosse)
Marco De Tullio (Fiamme Oro / Sport Project)
Stefano Di Cola (Navy / CC Aniene)
Manuel Frigo (Fiamme Oro / Team Veneto)
Nicolò Martinenghi (CC Aniene)
Pier Andrea Matteazzi (Army / In Sport Rane Rosse)
Filippo Megli (Carabinieri / RN Florentia)
Alessandro Miressi (Fiamme Oro / CN Torino)
Gregorio Paltrinieri (Fiamme Oro / Coopernuoto)
Alberto Razzetti (Fiamme Gialle / Genova Nuoto My Sport)
Matteo Restivo (Carabinieri / RN Florentia)
Simone Sabbioni (Army / Vis Sauro)
Federico Poggio (Fiamme Azzurre / Imolanuoto)
Lorenzo Zazzeri (Army / RN Florentia)
Women
Ilaria Bianchi (Fiamme Azzurre / NC Azzurra 91)
Martina Rita Caramignoli (Fiamme Oro / Aurelia Nuoto)
Martina Carraro (Fiamme Azzurre / NC Azzurra 91)
Arianna Castiglioni (Fiamme Gialle / Team Insubrika)
Ilaria Cusinato (Fiamme Oro / Team Veneto)
Elena Di Liddo (Carabinieri / CC Aniene)
Francesca Fangio (In Sport Rane Rosse)
Sara Franceschi (Fiamme Gialle / Livorno Aquatics)
Anna Chiara Mascolo (Hidron Sport Florence)
Margherita Panziera (Fiamme Oro / CC Aniene)
Federica Pellegrini (CC Aniene)
Benedetta Pilato (CC Aniene)
Stefania Pirozzi (Fiamme Oro / CC Napoli)
Simona Quadarella ( CC Aniene)
Giulia Vetrano (CN Nichelino)
Staff: technical director Cesare Butini, technicians Fabrizio Antonelli, Cesare Casella, Stefano Franceschi, Matteo Giunta, Christian Minotti, Stefano Morini, Claudio Rossetto, Antonio Satta; doctor Lorenzo Marugo; physiotherapists Stefano Amirante, Massimo Morelli and Alessandro Del Piero; aggregate judge Silvia Atzori.
The team will also be assisted by technicians Gianluca Belfiore, Alberto Burlina, Simone Palombi and Marco Pedoja and by the athletic trainer Marco Lancissi from 12 to 21 July at the Waseda University, in the Tokorozawa district, pre-Olympic training venue from 12 to 21 July. .
Open Water
Rachele Bruni (Fiamme Oro / Aurelia Nuoto)
Paltrinieri Gregorio (Fiamme Oro / Coopernuoto)
Mario Sanzullo (Fiamme Oro / CC Napoli)
Staff: technical coordinator Stefano Rubaudo, technicians Fabrizio Antonelli and Emanuele Sacchi.
I don’t understand why is Federico Poggio chosen for the 100 breast while Alessandro Pinzuti got ahead of him at their trials and also has a faster PB, only because the first beat the latter at tge sette colli. In the same situation Martina Carraro won their trials while Arianna Castiglioni got third position, but at the sette colli Castiglioni threw down a new national record beating both Carraro and Pilato and she is still not swimming the 100. I really don’t see the logic behind this..
Has Quadarella ever tried open water? Her back half Speedo makes me wonder how good she would be in a 5 or 10 K
It’ Manuel Frigo not Manuel Fridge ahahahha.
In Italy, Frigo means Fridge😅😅
Nah, with respect to da Chicago Bears player from the 80s, Manuel is known as The Fridge from now on.
The men have some good relay line-ups.
Condorelli could give their medal chances a boost.
They will probably use him in both heats and finals.
Italy has some real depth and quality. I don’t think they’ll win too many medals but they will have a lot of finalists.
Their men are slightly better in the relays but the women are decent too. It’s arguably harder to break into the women’s relay medals given the concentration of talent in Australia, the US and to a lesser extent China and Canada. The talent in the men is spread a little wider.
Tried to delete my initial comment 🙈
He is listed under his full name.
swimmers I’d have taken that are not selected – Codia and Pinzutti ( fly/ breast), Angiolini ( 4×200)
I think that Pinzuti’s absence in the 100 breaststroke is the most debated choice. Behind Martinenghi, Pinzuti was the fastest breaststroker in this season (59.20 at EuroChamps), but Poggio was quicker than Pinzuti at last event, the SetteColli meet, where he swam 59.39.
This year, unfortunately, Codia doesn’t swim on his level (50.6)😔.
About Angiolini she’s not even the 5th italian in 200 free
Pinzutti could have been selected over Poggio, as he was slightly faster this year.
In women’s 4×200 free, they can’t take too many risks, because they might end up out of the final. They have four to swim it, that are Pellegrini, Mascolo, Vetrano, Pirozzi. Quadarella, Panziera will also be there, if Italy can afford to rest someone in the heats.
I really thought Angiolini gets the nod ahead of Vetrano. Panziera can swim it unless it messes with her 200 bc….Quadarella, scheduling again…
i don’t understand how Codia didn’t get a discretionary pick…
Santo took Codia’s spot in the 100 fly. Codia could not even get under the 51.9 relay consideration standard while Santo did, and since Santo was already going to be on the roster for the free relay, they gave him the fly spots. They had no grounds to choose Codia over Condorelli.
Which two swimmers is Italy sending for the W 100 breast, Pilato / Castioglioni / Carraro?
Pilato and Carraro qualified to swim the 100 breaststroke.
Castiioglioni is taken as a relay swimmer
Sounds like a mess? 3 people for 2 spots?
Not especially – it seems like a decent compromise.
Pilato and Carraro will swim the individual. Castliogioni will swim the heats of the medley relay – where they should qualify reasonably comfortably. Then whoever seems to be in the best shape swims the final.
There’s also the mixed medley – although it’s probably best to go with Martinenghi there although again Castiogioni could well swim the prelims.
Giulia Vetrano, who will swim in the 4×200 free relay alongside Pellegrini, was not even born when Pellegrini won her first olympic medal.
Wow, seems like almost every swimmer is affiliated with the military or police. Is that how most Olympic athletes get funding in Italy?
I think 80% of top swimming and track and field athletes take a monthly salary from a military group.
Private funding in Italian sport has never worked very well.
The Italian state does not give much money directly to sport. In the past, the state gave money to sport thanks to the Totocalcio (a bet game on soccer). Now this system no longer works, because there are too many betting sites. If there were no military groups to help the sport, I think that in Italy only supertop athletes would be able to survive.
Doesent Russia and France have similar systems with athletes being “officers” in the military?
I think I read somewhere that Manadou has some military rank and I remember in the early 2000´s when Roman Sludnov broke the 50 breast WR in the world military games.