Andrea Stramaccioni heroic, saves two girls who were about to drown

Heroic gesture of Andrea Stramaccioni, who told Gazzetta dello Sport how on July 28 he literally saved the lives of two Bolzano girls, ages 17 and 19, who were drowning in the waters of Sfinale Bay, in Puglia.

“The lifeguard entered the water without anything, neither donuts nor ropes, as I did. He told me to head for the first girl, the older one, while he would focus on the other one. As soon as I saw her, he told me he was afraid. The water was high, the waves strong, I reiterated to her to stay calm, stay on her back, and that in five minutes it would all be over. In the end, so it was”.

“As soon as we reached a comfort zone near the shore I turned around to check where the lifeguard was with the other girl. She was in a state of shock. The lifeguard couldn’t help her, so I went right back. The younger girl’s situation was desperate: she would disappear, go down and then come back up, and most importantly, she had already drunk a lot. Meanwhile, the rescue boat had retrieved the lifeguard and was trying to get to us, but we were too close to the rocks. From the rocks they started to pull ropes to us, but we couldn’t get there. I started to get scared, especially because the girl was dragging me into the water. She was convinced she was going to die”.

“I asked her to listen to me and trust me. She had only one way to get out, and that was to slip into a small cove between the rocks, so I grabbed her and literally ‘threw’ her there, ending up underwater. At that point, after surfacing, I lost my bearings and ran into the rocks, then people threw me a rope and I climbed up, injuring my arms and legs. The girl was safe, but I only learned about it on shore. I breathed a sigh of relief”.