On July 3, the Italian Swimming Federation and the Italian Olympic Committee officially confirmed the nine athletes of the artistic swimming team that will compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The incredibly experienced and already two-time Olympian Linda Cerruti headlines this squad, alongside returning Tokyo Olympian Enrica Piccoli.
The athletes selected to represent Italy this summer are as follows:
- Linda Cerruti (30)
- Marta Iacoacci (23)
- Sofia Mastroianni (22)
- Susanna Pedotti (19)
- Enrica Piccoli (25)
- Lucrezia Ruggiero (24)
- Isotta Sportelli (24)
- Giulia Vernice (19)
- Francesca Zunino (24)
The athlete who will serve as reserve has not been specified at this time.
With a wealth of international experience, Linda Cerruti will undoubtedly lead this Italian Olympic team in Paris. On the senior national team since 2010, she has won a total of 26 European medals, the most of any artistic swimmer on the continent, and six world medals. With her appearance in these Paris Games, she will become the second three-time Olympian for Italy in artistic swimming after Giovanna Burlando (1992,1996, 2000).
The 30-year-old has never missed a beat for the national team over the years, competing in eight World Championships and seven European Championships. She also competed in the solo event from her very senior appearance 14 years ago and up until 2022.
Moreover, Cerruti has been a mainstay in the duet and team events since 2013. She competed in these two events during the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Olympics, placing sixth in duet and fifth and team, respectively, in both Games. She will once more appear in these events this summer, albeit with a different duet partner this time.
Competing in her first Olympics, Lucrezia Ruggiero will join Cerruti in the duet. A two-time World Champion and three-time European Champion in the mixed duet, the 24-year-old only started competing in the women’s duet last year. At the 2023 World Championships, she and Cerruti notably earned silver in the technical event.
The team will also benefit from the consistency and steadiness of Enrica Piccoli, team captain and Tokyo Olympian. On the senior national team since 2017, the 25-year-old is a five-time world medalist and 10-time European medalist.
Piccoli was a standout as a junior from 2015 to 2017, and the country’s soloist in 2016 and 2017 for the World and European Junior Championships. During her final junior season, she was also moved up to the senior squad to compete at the World Championships in Budapest, before eventually making her first Olympic team in 2021.
All members of this Olympic team took part in the 2023 and 2024 World Championships. Additionally, five of them are essentially of the same generation, and have been teammates for much longer.
Marta Iacoacci, Isotta Sportelli, Francesca Zunino as well as Lucrezia Ruggiero, have been competing together since their junior days, with most of them being key members of the junior national team from 2016 to 2018. All moved through the ranks at a relatively similar pace, albeit in different events.
Piccoli is one year older but did overlap with these four in 2016 and 2017. Iacoacci, Ruggiero, Sportelli, and Zunino joined the “B” national team after their three successful junior seasons, and competed in the 2019 European Cup together. Afterwards, Ruggiero was moved to the senior mixed duet, solely focusing on that event in 2021 and 2022, before re-joining the team routines in 2023.
After a few years of waiting in the wings for the call-up to the main squad, Iacoacci, Sportelli, and Zunino all moved up to the “A” national team ahead of the 2022 season. Iacoacci competed in the last three Worlds Championships (2022, 2023, 2024), and is a four-time world medalist as well as a seven-time European medalist.
The junior national team soloist during the 2018 season, Zunino has been just as valuable to the Italian senior team. She has claimed three world and six European medals over the last three years.
Serving as a reserve to the team routines in 2022, Sportelli went on to participate in the 2023 and 2024 World Championships – winning silver in technical team at the former –, as well as the 2023 European Games. The 24-year-old is also a five-time European medalist overall. Unlike all of her teammates, she competed in the 2021 European Championships, where she won two bronze medals in the technical and free mixed duet.
Sofia Mastroianni, 22, wasn’t too far behind this main group. A member of the youth team in 2016 and the junior team in 2018 and 2019, she joined the senior squad ahead of the 2023 season. She earned silver in technical team at the Fukuoka World Championships, and helped the Italians clinch three medals at the European Games in 2023. She will get to celebrate her 23rd birthday in Paris, only a few days before the start of the team competition.
At 19 years old, Giulia Vernice and Susanna Pedotti are the youngest members named to this Olympic team. After competing at the World and European Junior Championships in 2022 – winning three bronze medals in the former –, Vernice contributed to the silver-winning performance in technical team at the Fukuoka World Championships. She also won silver at the 2023 European Games in that event, and served as a reserve for the other two routines.
Pedotti hasn’t yet competed in the team events as part of the senior national squad, but was a standout in the junior national team from 2021 to 2023. She is notably a two-time European Junior Champion, a 12-time European Junior medalist, and a seven-time World Junior medalist. She has also been a standout in solo, an event in which she has competed since her international debuts at the 2019 World Youth Championships. In 2023, she traveled to Fukuoka with the senior team for the World Championships and competed in both solo events there. More recently, she also made her first appearance in the mixed duet at the 2024 World Championships.
This Italian team hasn’t competed since the Doha World Championships in February. There, it clinched one of the final team quotas to the Olympics after placing fifth in technical team, fifth in free team, and sixth in acrobatic team.
As expected based on the various national team call-ups over the last few months, Giorgio Minisini was not selected for the Paris Olympic Games. Minisini, a four-time World Champion and five-time European Champion in solo and mixed duet, had competed alongside the team at the 2023 European Games in the free and acrobatic routines, as well as at the 2024 World Championships in the acrobatic team. He most recently appeared at the European Championships in Belgrade, winning two medals in the solo events.
ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET
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