Rossella Fiamingo “I live for the sword and I have fun with Diletta Leotta and Elodie. But Paltrinieri is perfection”

Milan — When he confesses “fencing is my life, which is shattered without results”, as he did in tears in Tokyo, he does not say it for lack of alternatives. Rossella Fiamingo, two world titles and an individual Olympic silver in epee, is engaged to a radiant champion like Gregorio Paltrinieri. You play Chopin on the piano after graduating from the Bellini Conservatory in Catania. She is friends with stars like Diletta Leotta and Elodie. But fencing is something that completes her, and that she doesn’t want to give up, not even after Paris. Meanwhile, she has been chosen as testimonial for the World Cup in Milan: she will go on the platform on Tuesday 25 and Friday 28 in the team event.

After the sadness of Tokyo, indeed the “depression” as he called it?

“It was a moment of relief, because for me fencing is life, and in the years between Rio and Tokyo, many negative judgments came upon me. When we lose, we immediately think that we sportsmen are distracted, that we’ve gone to our heads: the public doesn’t like defeat. But when an athlete used to winning loses, he feels truly empty. He suffers to be told that he has not committed. The team medal in Tokyo was my answer, I had tears in my eyes because fencing has been everything to me since I was seven.”

Now how do you feel?

“In Cali I returned to the individual podium in the World Cup after 4 years, the really important race is at the World Cup and I want to get back to the medal zone, also counting as a testimonial”.

He will even have a World Cup at home.

“Very heavy, valid for qualifying for Paris 2024. After the Olympics away from home, my family will return, bringing with them, as at the Catania 2011 World Cup, my grandmother Cettina. Then all the friends, what a cheer, what adrenaline for us Azzurri”.

Unfortunately, the famous boyfriend, Gregorio Paltrinieri will be missing.

“I wanted to show him the World Cup live, but he’s obviously in Fukuoka. He really wants to try fencing, he is passionate about watching the competitions in streaming. In September, when he’s finished the season, I’ll let him try out in the gym. He could be a good swordsman, he’s very tall, he has long levers. The problem is that he’s not used to gravity, he knows how he behaves without water”.

Easier for him to take her swimming in the open sea.

“For me the sea is a refuge, as soon as I can I escape to my home in Santa Tecla. For him, however, the sea is love. He learned to swim as a child on the Aeolian Islands, he designed his future in ‘my’ waters ”.

Greg said it’s not time to think about the wedding yet: are you preparing Los Angeles 2028?

“I try, I still don’t feel the need to leave the platform. Let’s see how I get there on a physical level, probably the goal is the same for him too: he has broken every record, a little thought will surely do it”.

On social media she is also famous for her friendships with TV and music stars.

“I’ve always liked to cross the border, to get out of the world of sport, I enrolled at the University to meet new people. While remaining a sportswoman: eat well, go to sleep early. With Diletta Leotta we did not meet in our Catania, but in Milan, same age same acquaintances, in the end when we are together we do not play our character, I am Rossella, she is Diletta. We help each other, we have fun, we have the same passions. Two different worlds that meet in the name of friendship”.

Will there be your friend’s famous birthday party on August 15th this year?

“I would like to, but it depends on when she gives birth to her daughter. This is the priority, I will become an aunt and I am waiting for my little niece. It’s nice to see how in love Diletta and Loris are (Karius ed), a very good boy. But Greg and I have nothing to envy to anyone: he is the most beautiful person in the world, he is perfection”.

Elodie joined her group.

“It’s wrong to think of her as the exhibitionist artist, who tries to be the center of attention, to sing during an evening with friends: she doesn’t like to do it when she’s intimate. In the end we are girls, we have fun, we laugh, we chat all day long. It will be a gift, but with me everything becomes lighter”.

Have you learned other Chopin sonatas on the piano?

“I practice what I have studied. In the meantime I’m teaching Greg the technique, he’s very curious.”

He crossed paths with champions such as Trillini and Schiavone.

“Francesca made me understand that it wouldn’t have been possible, as I wanted, to repeat the World Cup won the year before. She freed me from tension, I won an even more perfect gold. Even Giovanna, whom I still meet in the national team, often put in a good word when I was in trouble”.

But are you already thinking about Paris?

“The Olympics will be in the homeland of fencing, of the official language we use on the platform, of an audience that feels the competitions a lot. I still have to qualify, of course, but a part of me is already dreaming: on one of those boats that will sail on the Seine, during the inaugural ceremony”.