Gregorio Paltrinieri, behind the smile a difficult renunciation: the champion does not hide

Although smiling for the second consecutive rainbow silver won on Friday in the 5 km at the World Championships in Singapore (a title that matches the one of the same metal won on Wednesday in the 10 km), Gregorio Paltrinieri wanted to remind that behind this success is a rather painful renouncement for him, that of competing in the pool. At the microphones of ‘Rai Sport’, the blue champion explained why.

“I gave up competing in the pool, I did it reluctantly ’ said, without mincing words, Paltrinieri – Actually I was undecided: for much of the preparation I was more for the ‘no’, but at the Settecolli I had done a very good time on the 1500 freestyle and I thought a chink might open up. But in the end it turned out differently”.

“If I put my mind to it, I can do very good times on the 1500 – explained the blue champion again -, but we decided with the team to focus on the cross-country races, then we also have to add the finger problem. All this convinced us to give up the pool races, although I am sorry because it would have been a good opportunity”.

Gregorio Paltrinieri, born in 1994, boasts an incredible palmarés, with five Olympic medals (including one gold, in the 1500 freestyle in Rio 2016), 18 world podiums (6 golds) and 6 at the World Championships in the short course (3 golds), 20 medals at the European Championships of which 13 were gold, 6 at the European Championships in the short course of which 4 were gold. He also won 32 Italian titles between 2011 and 2023, all in the pool.