Eleonora Giorgi: sport, study and motherhood of a walker

Eleonora Giorgi has the name of an actress, a Bocconi degree, a child of less than two years old and is marching towards the 2024 Paris Olympics which will mark her fourth participation in the games. Her story is one of those told in the book Changed by Woman99 stories of women who have attended Masters or Degree courses at Bocconi University and who have put their studies into practice in very different fields. «Mine», he says, «has been a particular path because I started marching relatively late and have always practiced sports since primary school. I’ve tried all sports, my true love has always been athletics. I started walking relatively late, 19 years old, which is an age when kids are usually at a crossroads and have to choose whether to continue with their studies or possibly go to work or whether to try to invest in sport and try to become professional athletes. Becoming a professional athlete is everyone’s dream.”

«I wasn’t strong yet and I started studying at Bocconi because my parents always told me you still have to have a piece of paper because it can be useful to you in life and it’s not a given that you’ll be able to become an athlete. If you manage to make your dreams come true, that’s something extra, but in the meantime you also have to study because you will need it for your future. I have to thank them very much because they have always supported and put up with me. At the time I started doing my first youth competitions and participating in the first Italian championships. I joined the Fiamme Azzurre which is the sports group of the prison police. In 2012 I managed to participate in my first Olympics, in London, and in the meantime I continued my studies. Paris 2024 will be my fourth after London, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.”

Sport and study have always gone hand in hand for the athlete born in 1989. «After completing my three-year degree, I decided to also do a specialist in the economics of Public Administrations and International Institutions. I then decided to also enroll in a master’s degree, in Bicocca in Sports Management and Marketing, because it is a sector where, one day, I would like to work.”

«Sporting activity at a high level can also be very exhausting: on the one hand it really gives you a lot, but it also takes a lot away from you and perhaps my luck was that I started walking late. At the moment I don’t know how long I will continue. Now I would like to do the Paris Olympics. Next year there are the world championships in Tokyo and I would certainly like to be a protagonist again next year in the 35 km race walk. I keep going year after year. I haven’t decided to hang up my shoes yet».

Motherhood also came into all of this. «I had to stop because after Tokyo I had a bad bicep injury. I could no longer heal either with therapies or by staying still and it was a very difficult period because for an athlete not being able to train is exactly as if you were missing something important. The doctors told me that in 2022 I would most likely not be able to compete. I spoke to my partner and we said: “Let’s try to expand the family. If we don’t try now“. I think that for a woman it is always difficult even in the world of work and even more so for a woman athlete. One always tends to put it off because there is never the right moment and in the end we have to create the right moment because if we are thinking about expecting a child, in these moments, especially in Italy, we would never do it. Matteo supported me, we decided to expand the family and in November 2022 Leone was born.”

«Motherhood has changed me. From a physical point of view, more lasting because I then started training again almost immediately after the 40 days. I resumed with a lot of difficulty, I don’t deny it because I was off for many months, therefore the months of rest accumulated plus the months of pregnancy and yet after five months since Leone was born, I managed to do my first 5km race which for us it’s no big deal. I started to embrace the dream of being able to participate in the World Championships which were held in Budapest last August. I managed to do it thanks to the ranking because I wasn’t able to do the minimum participation, one of the last draws, something that had never happened to me. I got to twentieth place.”

«It also changed me from a mental point of view because it is a responsibility, it is demanding, there are many beautiful moments, but it is also very tiring. I work with my body and many times, after double training in the evening, perhaps after you have done 20-30 km, keeping up with an 18 month old child who requires all your attention, and he is really lively and requires a lot of energy, is tiring.”

Leone also went to the federal rally. His parents alternated between family and training. «We have never taken it to races abroad yet. Luckily there are grandparents. We don’t bring it to the race, we try to stay focused as much as possible. We’re going away for three days. It never crossed my mind that I wanted to quit, I said “I want to give myself a second chance”. I knew there would be the Olympics in 2024 and I had this goal.”

There are marchers who have returned, even at high levels, after maternity leave. Like many athletes, she cites the example of Allyson Felix, who returned to running the 400 meters after having a child. Eleonora Giorgi trains every day twice a day. «After maternity my training changed a bit, I still haven’t been able to get back to my pre-maternity levels. I feel. I still struggle to do certain times or recover between one training session and another, perhaps also due to my advancing age. The race distances have also changed. In 2019 I had competed in the 50 km when I won the bronze medal at the World Championships and the amount of kilometers I had to do even in training was greater. Now there’s the 20km. Mentally I wouldn’t be able to do 42 in training, which happened before fifty.”

What do you think during 20 kilometers of walking? «If the race is going very well and you are in the leading group or in any case close to the leaders, you are much more concentrated because there is precisely the objective to be achieved. When I start to struggle. I try to set myself micro goals to achieveI think: “Maybe I’ll have a nice sandwich with chips, I’ll eat a pizza or if it’s very hot, I can live with the desire for ice cream watermelon and therefore there are slightly more futile thoughts.”

When she left after maternity leave she was going through times she hadn’t even contemplated before and for someone as competitive as her it wasn’t easy, but you have to start somewhere. «You can do the same things as before, it’s not that you can’t do them, but you have to take into account that there is another person or rely on other people to keep it for you. I haven’t deprived myself of anything, I can do the same things as before, but maybe not when I want, but when others can. We need to organize ourselves a little better, especially when we are not too tired and have already collapsed on the floor at 9pm. It took away a few hours of sleep and I think sleep is important. I was someone who slept, not until 10 in the morning, but anyway, I went to bed early, but I owed myself and wanted to get my eight hours of sleep. When he was born he then woke up every three hours. I didn’t breastfeed because I immediately started training again. At the hospital I had many nurses against me but it was a somewhat personal choice and I don’t think it was selfish: to go back to work, to be able to be even more independent in management and then even at night Matteo and I could take shifts because I have to say that it helped me and really helps me a lot in managing di Leone. For me it is important to divide the tasks at home.”

What if your son wants to play sports? «I hope that Leone is passionate about sport, but I hope that he doesn’t go walking, I have to be honest. The important thing is that he plays sports, that he has fun, to feel good, for his body. Then we hope that he has taken from his father that he is tall and therefore we direct him towards a good sport, perhaps a team sport, volleyball or basketball.”