The world according to Gregorio Paltrinieri: free waters, medals and cleaner worlds

The conquest of the silver medal in the 5 km in free waters at the Singapore World Cup – Detail: with a broken finger, a microfracture to the anal remedied in the 10 kilometers in which it came according to – only confirms the size of the athlete on the one hand and on the other the uniqueness of man. Let’s talk about Gregorio Paltrinieri And this umpteenth enterprise embellish the path of a thirty -year swimmer – The most medaled Italian in his discipline to games – which for a decade has put medals and trophies on the bulletin board, but is distinguished – and this is what the difference – for a whole series of choices that make him a virtuous model in Italian sport.

Paltrinieri differs from many of his colleagues – of swimming and other disciplines – because he faces everything – victories, defeats, glory, injuries – with a mixture of lightness and discipline. Without ever losing a smile, without ever losing balance. When at the Budapest World Championships of 2021 he won the 5 km and 10 km, he commented on the company: “I had a lot of fun, it was what I was looking for.” This is the secret of the champions: looking, looking for each other.

Greg is the example of the champion who gives his best when the world gets sideways, when fate hurts him, when – as happened before Tokyo 2021 – he had contracted the mononucleosis and – consequently – suspended training. In those Japanese days he had presented himself in water as a child who sees the sea after a year. It was silver in the 800 freestyle, fourth place in the 1500, bronze in the 10 km: First athlete in the world capable of going to the podium both in the tank and in open waters. A company never succeeded before, so Greg rewritten the history of swimming.

His is the story of a champion who was in the water at four months: his dad Luca managed a swimming pool, in Novellara, in the province of Reggio Emilia – the truth is that there are people used to breathing chlorine since they were in the world – while his mother Lorena – by her own admission – has never learned to swim, is afraid of water. And to say that his dream was to become A basketball player. But it is in the water that Greg has made sense of all his sacrifices. And above all he has been able to reinvent himself.

For years he won in two specialties, the 1500 freestyle – to shine more than everything else is Gold at Rio 2016 games – And in the 800. Then he moved the horizon, changing the hunting territory. Here are the 5 and 10 km. in free water. New challenges, new victories. So on the waters of Fiume, of the Lakes, of the sea; Greg continued to mark a difference. “It is a different sport, the world changes from the tub to free waters.”

And the world, after all, is trying to change him too. With a sincere civil commitment not so common, at least in sport. Paltrinieri is in fact the creator of Dominates The Watera circuit of swimming events in free waters that reconciles sporting events, passion, enhancement and protection of Italian seas and beaches. A sort of “pact with the sea” against water pollution, the culture of waste and waste because the sea can no longer be the landfill of the earth. The pact is a commitment to protect its biodiversity. One of the slogans that accompany the many initiatives of Dominates The Water It is “every breath is to look beyond ourselves, every goal a new principle”. It applies to the idea of the world we have, it is worth to measure the virtuous difference that brings Gregorio Paltrinieri to the dowry.