It can no longer be said that there is a new name in Italian swimming. Benedetta Pilato it is now a certainty. At the age of 16, next January he won the pass for the Tokyo Olympics in the hundred breaststroke winning the Italian absolute with the new national record 1’06 ″ 02. It is the fourth European time of all time that scored by the young Tarantina coached by Vito d’Onghia.
“It was a bit of a ransom because the Absolute I never went as I would have liked in the past », he said at the end of the race.
They seem like veteran words, as if it were ten years ago that the absolute Italian championships. «The Olympic Games were a goal, a sign that we are working well together with my team but this is only a starting point. I can’t wait to get back to training to improve more and more, ”he told Sky Sport.
The world met her a year and a half ago at Gwangju World Cup, for her the silver in the 50 breaststroke ahead of Yulia Efimova and a few cents behind the American champion Lilly King. At 14 years and 194 days, she was the youngest Italian ever to land in a swimming world championship and the youngest to have won a medal in any sport. Better than Federica Pellegrini, who in Athens 2004 was silver in the 200 freestyle at 16 years and 12 days.
That she was predestined had long been clear. “I was 2 the first time and at 4 I did the first races. My current coach wanted me to do it, my parents didn’t. My father knew the sacrifices of competitive sport and feared a little for me, in the end my coach convinced them. After the first race, the second arrived, after the second the third… I got a taste for it ».
If the Olympics had been last August and not postponed for Covid, perhaps Benedetta would not have gone to Tokyo. Now his Olympic perspective goes on at least until Los Angeles 2028. It’s a very long way for that girl from Taranto, where a swimming pool for his training is not there and for years he has covered thirty kilometers on the way out and the same number on the way back almost every day. In addition to school, high school specializing in applied sciences. No free time, lots of satisfactions.
Olympic pass with Italian record for Benny and Thomas! 💙
Benedetta Pilato closes the 100 frogs at the Winter Absolutes of Riccione on 1’06.02; in the 100 back 52.84 for Thomas Ceccon! ⏱#ItaliaTeam | @FINOfficial_ | #roadtotokyo pic.twitter.com/nB0ZT49HaN
— ItaliaTeam (@ItaliaTeam_it) December 17, 2020
She is not the only very young girl to have obtained the pass for Tokyo in the Riccione pool. He also qualified for the Olympics Thomas Ceccon with the Italian record in the 100 backstroke: 52 ″ 84. He will turn twenty next January 27 and will go to his first Olympics as an adult after winning five medals at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics.
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