Elena Bertocchi and Chiara Pellacani, the bronze pair in synchronized diving who never train together

This time those hundredths of a point often mocking in the history of Italy of diving – the Marconi brothers in Rome 2009, Tania Cagnotto in London 2012 – smiled at us. At the Fukuoka 2023 World Championships Elena Bertocchi and Chiara Pellacani won the bronze medal in the 3m springboard synchro with 285.99 points, 60 cents more than the Americans Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook (285.39). In the last rotation, the Italians, at that moment fourth in the standings, scored 62.10 points with a double and a half back pike and they would have had to hope for a mistake by the British or American pair to get on the podium. The former defended themselves, and with 296.58 final points they secured the silver medal behind China; the latter made a mistake in the run-up, put their feet off the trampoline and one of the two athletes entered the water much further than the ideal parabola of the dive. Certainly, very little synchronized with her partner. There were moments of waiting, of silence, then of amazement: for Italy it is the first world medal in this specialty ten years after the silver in Barcelona 2013 by Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallapé.

What is the secret to assembling a competitive pair for synchro? Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallapé, one from Bolzano and the other thirty, lived just 60 kilometers apart and trained together every week. Elena Bertocchi, on the other hand, is from Milan, Chiara Pellacani from Rome, and above all for two seasons she moved to the United States to study psychology at Louisiana State University. From August she will move to the University of Miami. “It’s a wonderful day,” said Bertocchi with the medal around his neck. “It’s an unexpected result, even more so, because we’ve practically never trained together this year. This is sport: incredible and unexpected things happen”.

The two Italian divers did not experience an easy season, who in any case managed to win bronze in the same competition at the European Games in Poland in June. Last December, Elena Bertocchi underwent back surgery to remove a benign bone tumor that had been causing her pain bordering on intolerable for four years. Before this World Championship you only competed twice. “We have shown her MRIs to various doctors. One of them, studying them, told us: ‘How old is this lady? 80?’”, the technical director of the Italian national team Oscar Bertone told Corriere dello Sport a month ago. “In recent months I have struggled a lot with my mental health and I needed to get some rest from diving,” Chiara Pellacani revealed after her success in the individual 3m event at the European Games. Thanks to today’s bronze medal, the two Italians also qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics. “But we’ll arrive in France better prepared”, they finally promised, smiling.