Rhythmic gymnastics hearing, Centofanti defends Maccarani: “Anna Basta envious”

“Nina Corradini and Anna Basta didn’t have much interest in following the food plan. Why did they report the abuses? Anna felt a grudge, she had been rejected in the Olympic year and perhaps she was envious ”. Martina Centofanti, for 10 years in the national rhythmic team, defending the coach Emanuela Maccarani (former technical director, now suspended) and her assistant Olga Tishina by the allegations of ill-treatment made to Repubblica by the two former gymnasts. And in the third hearing of the sporting proceeding in the Federal Court, Centofanti goes on to the counter-attack. “I talk more than Anna because I’ve shared more years in the team. In this sport, 3.4.5 kilos more make the difference than her and her lack of physical shape was obvious. Yet she felt perfect, even though she was 8-9 kilos more than me. This was a problem for everyone – continues the Italian athlete – as in the exercises there are lifting and dragging. The lack of awareness of her created confusion with us and also with the coaches. She didn’t accept criticism and she always had to have the last word. Discussions were very frequent. I’ve never been in trouble with a girl like with her. We put her problem before her, without attacking her personally, but she, Anna, said she was perfect. What did the coaches say? Observations were made, such as ‘a little less Anna’. If they said ‘is the child growing up?’. Yes, there was this sentence but everyone interpreted it differently. Obviously the tones raised a bit when the weight gains were constant, occasionally some over the top phrases may have come out”.

This brings us to the breaking point with Basta. “She couldn’t keep up with us and she wasn’t chosen for the Olympics, above all for a technical issue, and she never accepted this. She tried to take the commitment more seriously but she was not readmitted to the team ”.

Hence the decision to leave the national rhythmic team and, a year later, to report the abuses to Repubblica. Before Basta, 22, the silence on Desio’s working methodology had been broken by the 19-year-old Nina Corradini. “I didn’t talk about the malaise I felt in Desio to the federation psychologist, Gatti, because he was a friend of Maccarani. And I, like other comrades, had the feeling of not being free”, began the former Roman Butterfly before the Federal Court presided over by Marco Leone. It is the first encounter-clash in a classroom between Corradini and Maccarani. And the climate, of course, is very tense. With the 19-year-old from Rome cornered by the defense that she immediately asks for “the inadmissibility of the witness, as she is not registered with the federation and she has no obligation to tell the truth”. To then press her with questions regarding the parents’ profession and any economic compensation received for television appearances. “We have never accepted any money,” Corradini said.

The hearing on 7 July is the third round of the sporting trial, which will end by the end of the month: the first degree outcome will arrive after the summer. In parallel, the criminal investigation is taking place which has opened the Monza prosecutor’s office on the accusations against Maccarani and Tishina: the investigators have also seized several mobile phones to find evidence. “I left Desio in June 2021 – continues Corradini in his testimony – because I couldn’t stand being there anymore. I remember in a very negative way, so much so that I’m still seeing a psychologist, the pressures on weight and the public humiliations for two ounces more. Typical day? At 8 we were in the gym for the morning weigh-in. Then warm up, dance class and we tried the first exercise. In the afternoon the second. And in the end we younger ones went to school. The ritual of weighing was usually done by assistants Olga Tishina or Camilla Patriarca who marked the weight in the notebook. Even for one or three ounces comments were made and those in line heard everything: ‘How can you look in the mirror?’, ‘But you’re not ashamed’, ‘how do you get through the circle like this?’. Most of the time the sentences were addressed to me, Anna Basta, Talisa Torretti “. Emblem of Corradini’s malaise, the use of laxatives: an extreme attempt to lose weight. Laxatives which, after months, were discovered following a search of the room. But although she was still a minor, no one from Desio notified Corradini’s family.