«Ah, the one about the trolley didn’t want to tell you? Then I’ll tell you about it.” Almost everything is known about champion Jury Chechi. Many-decorated Italian “Lord of the Rings”, Olympic champion in Atlanta in 1996, bronze in Athens in 2004 and 5 times world champion, the athlete from Prato has long been in the Olympus of Italian sport and today, at 54 years old, he manages an agency of communication, the Colle del Giglio farmhouse in the Marche and the academy that bears his name.
What is not known, however, is his jovial side, jokes, evenings with friends, looking for women and laughter. «Because of the crazy nights with Jury Chechi my wife wanted a divorce – the former canoeist Antonio Rossi told Courieranother of the myths of Italian sport – there would be many anecdotes with him, but don’t make me tell you about the one about the cart…”.
Chechi, do you want to tell us what happened with the trolley?
“Sure why not. We were in Milan, a fun and festive evening, it was the beginning of the 2000s. We were about to leave the club and next to the car we found a shopping trolley, I threw myself into it and Antonio told me to “stay there”. In short, like idiots, we start the car and he opens the window and drags me down the street. We were laughing like crazy, except that at a certain point the police car appears and, as soon as he sees the flashing lights, he leaves the trolley and makes me crash into a wall. The thing we still laugh at, however, are the faces of the policemen: “But how about you? Chechi and Rossi?”. They recognized us, we almost felt sorry for them.”
Rossi’s wife says your wild nights were about to lead to divorce.
«Eh, that holiday in Corvara was tough (laughs, ed.). We were returning from New York where we had fun like crazy and we didn’t intend to stop. Her wife was black, we were always late and he blamed me to try to calm her down. And I took it.”
How did the friendship between you two begin?
«In 1996 I was president of the jury at Miss Italia and they asked me to choose another athlete to be included in that jury. I told him that he was already well-known and an established champion, as well as a beautiful boy. From the first time together I understood that we would become inseparable. Antonio is very nice and funny. He makes figures around the world that you can’t imagine…”
Tell us more.
«Some I really can’t tell you. One yes though: with the fans we usually took photos together, me on one side, him on the other and the fans in the middle. Well, during the shots we pinched each other’s arms to see who would give up first in pain. Except that once he started pinching a girl’s arm… I won’t tell you about her bruises. All these years I have also tried to exploit the fact that he is a kind of Adonis. I hoped that going out with the handsome guy would bring something good for me too, but the results with women, as far as I’m concerned, were not as hoped.”
She in Prato, he in Lecco. Are you still able to hang out?
«Look, I heard from him this morning too, he had a small operation and I wanted to know how he was. I didn’t know about the interview otherwise I would have sent him to hell… However, the friendship, esteem and bond between us will remain forever. We were great athletes and you don’t become a champion if you don’t work seriously, but in the right moments we had fun like crazy.”
