Federica Pellegrini has a dream: “Who knows if one day we will succeed.”

“In Italy, there is more than just soccer.”

Present at the Foro Italico as not only a swimming enthusiast but also the patroness of the European Championships in Rome, Federica Pellegrini receives daily acclamations and ovations whenever she appears in public. Interviewed by La Gazzetta dello Sport, in a chat that also involved aspects of her private life, the Divine could not refrain from commenting on the extraordinary moment of Italian swimming, dominator of the continental kermis. Never trivial, the champion from Veneto emphasized the increasing importance that should be given to swimming compared to, for example, soccer, which has always taken the lion’s share in our country.

“The golds of our athletes mean so much. I hope Italy realizes more and more the power that sport in general, not just soccer, gives. Here there was Lazio-Bologna with Ponte Milvio blocked, and you ask yourself: man, in the pool next door there are the European Championships. And everyone goes to see Lazio instead. I say this not in a polemical key but as a dreamer. Who knows if one day we will be able to move all that mass of people…,” Pellegrini began.

Corroborating her theses, also considering her ‘political’ role as an IOC member she has held since August 4, 2021, is the idea of bringing professionalism to her beloved discipline as well: “It’s time to move to professionalism in sports, as women’s soccer has done. There must be the opening of a new era for other sports. Especially the economically powerful federations must make this leap forward, because it is good for the athletes,” he concluded.