Emanuela Maccarani, Corradini’s accusations and Centofanti’s defense at the sports trial – Corriere.it

The minutes are one thing, the direct, face-to-face testimonies are another. Pronounced for the first time on Friday in Rome in the courtroom of the sporting trial against Emanuela Maccarani (present, two meters away from her ex-pupil who has her back to her) and Olga Tishina, the words of Nina Corradinione of the former rhythmic gymnastics blues who denounced the technical commissioner of the national team and her assistant and opened an issue that has devastated the world of Italian gymnastics, cannot leave us indifferent.

Confirmation of the allegations

Corradini, silver at the 2017 Junior European Championships, very excited at the beginning of the hearing then more and more confident, is certainly not put at ease by the fragmented questions and the tiring verbalization of the members of the federal court, who instead of recording her words force her to repeat them several times. Despite the difficulties, the former Roman athlete, who will turn twenty next August, reaffirms everything she had revealed first to the newspapers, then to the criminal and sports prosecutors. During the morning weigh-in – says the athlete – a variation of 100 grams was enough to be insulted by Tishina or by her assistant Camilla Patriarca: “So you will no longer pass in the circle. But don’t be ashamed. But how do you look in the mirror”.

The rite of weight

The insults were sometimes repeated even in the gym and also by Maccarani

, who read our weights in the notebook of other techniques. The nutritionist Buccianti (the one who should institutionally deal with weight, ed) only showed up once a month. We didn’t dare to talk about the situation either with the staff or with our parents. For fear of the rite of balance, I began to systematically take laxatives. One day, by mistake, I took two and fell to the ground like a sack, passed out. Only several months later, the staff became aware of me consuming them after arranging a search of my room, carried out by Martina Pullara. I was a minor, but they didn’t warn my parents and they scolded me severely. There was a federal psychologist but he was such a friend of Maccarani that neither I nor Alisa Torretti, who had the same problems as me, thought we could safely turn to him. At a certain point I couldn’t take it anymore and left Desio and I went to an external psychologist who still follows me because gymnastics was my life and I was afraid of the consequences of having stopped.

The word to the defense

After attempting to invalidate the testimony by virtue of Corradini’s current non-enrollment (request rejected after a brief council session), the defense of Maccarani and Tishina tried to put her in difficulty by assuming that her revelations had a journalistic scoop as their main objective or television for a fee without doing so. In fact, Corradini explained, at the request of Tishina’s defense, that she had refused all the compensation that she too had been offered to her and went on TV to tell the story for free.

Centofanti defends Maccarani

The second witness Martina Centofanti, daughter of Felice, a former Inter player and current national team athlete, coached by Maccarani for ten years and has never had any problems in the national team. Her story flows cold and fluid and aims to highlight the serious weight and character problems of the accusing colleagues and their anomaly in a cohesive group where, in the opinion of the blue, the two constituted a destabilizing element. And in this the sports court offers her ample space: more than a testimony of her, her seems like a conference on weight and character problems in gymnastics. and the accused become Anna Basta and Nina Corradini. Weighing? Previously it happened every day, now twice a week. We were in our underwear, of course. Initially the assistants weighed on it. I’ve always seen it as a rule, our sport in which the aesthetic aspect matters a lot, a bit like a routine.

To questions from the president (more suitable for a dietitian than for an athlete), Centofanti admits that a kilo of more or less would not change anything but if constant it constitutes a problem because the gymnast finds it difficult to follow the rhythm of the others. And then comes the direct and unsolicited reference from the sports magistrate to Anna Basta. His weight problems – explains Centofanti – were visible even to non-experts. Anna has always been a particular girl, who thought she was perfect on a physical, technical and character level. I was astounded by the fact that she had come to weigh 8/9 kilos more than me. She caused very serious inconveniences, primarily with us companions and then with the coaches because she countered anything that was said to her, she did not accept any kind of criticism and this behavior created a lot of inconvenience. Many girls had problems but a compromise had to be found. Anna was never able to do it, she kept her ego up and I never got into trouble with other girls like I did with her. Nina Corradini had problems but she was in the second team, so I can’t testify exactly about her.

He explains to President Centofanti that Anna Basta was very full of herself and therefore did not accept comments on her weight problems. Yes, the coaches made observations to her. The dietician? arrived only in 2019, before it was in the interest of the individual to hear from his dietitian. Centofanti admits that it is normal that in a high-level sporting environment, even if the approach has always been correct and Anna and Nina weren’t interested in eating properly, this should be pointed out but with never disparaging comments. Tishina said: Anna a little too much, Nina a little too much. The phrase the baby grows in your belly has been interpreted differently” by each of us. The concept was that we were growing up. A few over-the-top sentences may have come out but not with a disparaging intent.

In short, a full-blown defense of the environment and the coaches which, concludes Centofanti, was not accepted by Anna Basta because she does not admit the criticisms while we took note of them because they were constructive criticisms. The portrait of Anna Basta ends with a reflection: We were more than sisters with her, it was impossible not to notice if she was ill, she was a very open girl. We were very bad at it. In my opinion she couldn’t keep up with us, she was replaced and on that occasion she began to ask a few more questions by going on a serious diet. But with her leading man character, she didn’t accept her exclusion. Without wanting to give judgments, I noticed that progressively, since she stopped, envy and resentment increased in her until relations broke down, probably due to his personal failure. I think it was envy.