2008 Olympic champion Federica Pellegrini is considering retiring from the sport of swimming.
In an exclusive interview with the Weekly Chi in Italy, the reigning 200m freestyle World Champion said “I’m seriously thinking about leaving (swimming)”, claiming her heart tells her to stop due to issues ‘out of the pool’ while her head is telling her to continue. “By autumn I will decide what to do with my life”.
Pellegrini, who turned 30 earlier this month, hinted that if she does decide to retire, she has aspirations of becoming a mother.
The Italian triumphantly returned to major international glory last summer at the World Championships, winning gold in the 200 free over reigning Olympic and World Champion Katie Ledecky. That victory gave her an astonishing seven consecutive medals in the event, first winning silver in 2005, and was also her third gold after victories in 2009 and 2011.
On the Olympic level, Pellegrini won silver in the 200 free in Athens just days after turning 16, and then followed up with a gold medal win four years later in Beijing.
After that World title in Budapest, Pellegrini claimed she was retiring the 200 free from her event lineup (at least at major competitions), and stayed true to her word this year as she only competed individually in the 100 free (placing 5th) at the European Championships in Glasgow.
She currently holds the LCM world record in the 200 free (1:52.98), and is the 2nd-fastest woman ever in the 400 free (3:59.15).
I’m interested if Katie Ledecky swims in winter nationals in November trying to get beck #1 ranking this year in 200. If she does it she will have three consecutive seasons as #1 matching with that Pellegrini’s achievement of 2008, 2009, 2010 seasons.
I think rankings are for the year Sept 1 – Aug 31. If she were to have regained the top rank she needed to swim leadoff on the relay, which she did not.
I was talking about FINA’s ranking that’s done per calendar year. You are probably talking about college season
I would imagine Ledecky cares more about the TYR world swim rankings which can be found at Swimswam.
If we are talking pure 200 Free….how is Franzi not in this conversation? First Olympic medal in 92. Broke the 200 Fr World Record in 1994 and held that record until 2007 for 13 years until Federica broke it. She has still held the WR longer than Pellegrini (so far). I guess the question is, what is the standard for greatest? Olympic gold (Franzi never won), or dominance in the event (no one was faster for 13 years).
Also….I’m a big fan of both ladies, but it does have to be noted that Pellegrini’s WR was not only during the age of the rubber super suits, but it was also in that small window of when people were double… Read more »
As you note, Federica broke Franzi’s record in 2007 which was not done in the fast suits of the next two years. The argument for Franzi is that she dominated her competition, but she never won Olympic gold. If your argument is primarily based on her best times, it is hard to use that as the basis for an argument that someone is better than another swimmer who had better times..
Just because she has a supersuit record people don’t like her. She broke out in 2004 with a silver in the 200 free at the olympics, got sipver in 2005 at worlds, then set a short lived 200 free world record in 2007 and won bronze at worlds that year. Won the 2008 olympics with a new world record. Set multiple Wrs in 2009 on way to 2 golds. She successfully defended both titles in 2011. Won silver in both 2013 and 2015. And to top everything off she pulled of an incredible upset to once again win gold in 2017 over Katie Ledecky. She is by far the most accomplished women this century in the 200 free.
Ledecky may… Read more »
Federica Pellegrini started compete in 200 free event when it was in stagnation for long period of time. Her gold wins came to the end in 2011 when a real players came to the scene. For six years her name was mentioned less and less as major contender for the gold medal. Finally she won in Budapest and what has followed immediately next? Not retirement but no more racing in 200. Isn’t it strange for the Queen? She is a great swimmer and has an impressive medal collection, but let’s not to exaggerate. There is a group of swimmers who moved this event to the next level after Franziska van Almsick’s 13 years reign. It includes Lauren Manaudou, Camille Muffat,… Read more »
Right now I would agree that Pellegrini is the most accomplished. But I do not think that it is by far. As a far as winning two golds in 2009 and defending both titles in 2011, it would seem that IM is including 400 free results in the argument, and if we are going to talk about the greatest 200/400 free women, then I would argue that by far it is Ledecky who should be given that title.
If she needs a donor….
During Pellegrini’s career I can think of very few truly outstanding 100/200 or 200/400 swimmers. Camille Muffat is one. You also had Sjostrom but she quickly gave the 200 away to focus on sprint freestyle and buttefly. Ledecky’s focus on distance means we don’t know how good she could have been iuf she had focused purely on middle distance. Schmitt’s reign at the top was very brief. Pellegrini had great success in the 400 but it came pretty early. For the bulk of her career she’s been a one trick pony. Still, the cold hard facts are that she has more hardware than anyone else in the 200 and so she has to be considered the most successful ever in… Read more »
Overrated
I hate suits records. I hate them because they were set during assisted swimming and registering them in record books is a cheating. But for some reason the women’s 200 free record doesn’t cause that much of my negative emotions than the similar one on the men’s side. And I wish it to be the last one gone. May be it is because of Pellegrini’s legacy.
I am obviously biased here, but I’ll make the case for Pellegrini’s title to Queen of the 200 free: 1) she won international medals over a 13-year span showing incredible consistency; 2) she has kept winning at an age that does not favor mid-distance swimmers, and against much younger competitors; 3) yes Schmitty was faster in textile but we will never know how fast she would have been in 2009 without the magic suit – certainly not 1:52, but 1:53 is not entirely out of the question.
My read of this half-wish to retire: last year, she bet with herself that by focusing on the 100 free, her first specialty, she would get closer to the elite girls. She has… Read more »
With the exception of several seasons when she was successful at 400 the 200free event was the only event where she competed at elite level for quite awhile. That’s what probably makes people to think of her as a Queen of 200. Many others like Franklin, Ledecky, Sjostrom who successfully competed with Pellegrini in 200 free are famous by achievements in other disciplines where they have already the Queen title and don’t need another secondary one.
On a technical note I believe I downvoted Luigi by accident when I clicked on a desire to see the entire post. .
3 golds and 3 silver for the 200m freestyle at World Championshios between 2005-17. Also Olympic gold in Beijing and silver in Athens.
Four global titles and four silvers over 13 years, so even without the supersuited WR, Pelligrini has had an incredible career alone in the 200m free. She didn’t dominate the Top 10 times and Schmitt’s swim in London was the best performance ever over the distance, but Pelligrini has been a big-time performer.