PADUA – Four Olympic medals, including gold in Sydney 2000: Rossano Galtarossa is the Italian rower on the podium the most times at the Games. «And yet this is still the specialty of the Abbagnale brothers – admits Rossano – few people know that I am the most medallisted». Is it the fault of Galeazzi’s epic commentary? «But no, “Bisteccone” also told about my competitions, only that in the popular imagination they are more remembered of the big brothers, as he called them. Don’t get me wrong: eternal glory to the Abbagnales, but there are others too; of Federica Cesarini and Valentina Rodini who won in Tokyo 2021, the first Olympic gold for Italian rowing after Sydney and the first women’s gold ever, who remembers? Then it’s a communication problem. «Certainly with social media now an athlete of any sport can be “online” immediately after a result, I had to wait for his colleagues to be able to say something. But it’s true that there are sports, like ours, in which attention peaks around big events, but then too little is talked about.”
The Olympics, no regrets
Are there any regrets for not showing off a little more, for not claiming the weight of his medals? «No, I have always had a rule: what is done is the past. It’s right to be proud of him, but he must be put behind us. After a world title, after an Olympic medal, you can’t wallow for too long; if you want to continue competing you have to look at the next commitment, because preparation is the basis for every result. If you think you’ve arrived, it’s the end, you can stop because you no longer have the motivation. I happened to need a break, after Athens 2004 I took a two-year sabbatical, but when I decided to start again I did it without thinking that I was the Sydney 2000 Olympian.” Barcelona 1992 was his first Olympics, of the six in which he participated. «In Spain I was already the tallest of the crew, but I was also the “bocia” of the group, the young man with no experience, so I only thought about doing my duty. In the final a thrilling finish: Germany unreachable for gold, we finish with Norway and Switzerland in 26 hundredths of a second; the photo finish is interminable, then we are third by six hundredths behind Norway and the Swiss off the podium, but we have the medal”.
Second Olympics in Atlanta 1996, the centenary Games. «They should have been from Athens, a hundred years after the premiere, but instead the money from the famous carbonated drink prevails. We come here as reigning world champions, having won the title in the previous two years; we also have the world championship record and therefore we are the favourites. But something in the previous months sounds the alarm, we also change something in the training because the chronometric results are not satisfactory. Furthermore, the opponents have studied us and find ways to put us in difficulty. In the final we came fourth, half a meter from the podium, one of the worst things that could happen, because if you lose it’s better to lose badly, at least there are no regrets. 28 years later I still remember the feeling of demolition at the end of that race.” The declarations of the technical director Giuseppe La Mura (“they didn’t train enough”) do the rest, Rossano is on the verge of giving up everything. But he finds his motivation again and with the blue “four” he wins two more world titles (1997 and 1998). The following year, however, things went badly in Canada and so Galtarossa faced La Mura “in a bad way” and the two made their point. Thus we arrive at Sydney 2000.
The feeling with Australia
«Australia was a discovery, a continent with which I immediately found a connection, despite the enormous time difference, since the pre-Olympic meeting held in 1999. I warmed up early in the morning on a lawn and despite the cold I stayed at bare feet precisely because of the need to have contact with the earth”. The Sydney finaltold with unmistakable style by Galeazzi, it is a triumphal march. After the feat, Galtarossa thinks of quitting as a winner, but the “fever” soon returns and is fueled by the desire to try a different adventure, this time with the two sculls together with Alessio Sartori. They went on the podium at the 2001 and 2003 world championships (also in 2002, but with the “four”), then in Athens 2004 they confirmed their place on the podium and won bronze. «A challenge especially with the boat – recalls Rossano – because we were both two meters tall and a double is very short compared to a four. But in the end it wasn’t a real problem.”
Two years off
This time Galtarossa is determined to quit for real, and remains still for two years. But the new energometric tests that the federation adopts to evaluate athletes are jailbirds; Rossano decides to do them out of pure curiosity and after two years without training he is incredibly among the best. «I made myself available and started training again to win a place, because my medals rightly guaranteed me nothing; in fact I became the mother hen of all the good young people who fought with me to go to the Games in China.” In Beijing the environmental conditions are difficult. «Crazy humidity and everything was grey, but the hood was also about organisation: I have rarely encountered such rigidity in safety regulations». In the final the very strong Polish team wins, but a nice silver arrives, Galtarossa’s last Olympic podium. At London 2012 he was relegated to reserve by the technical director Giuseppe De Capua, who did not communicate this to the athlete, who learned it from a journalist. A bitter ending to a legendary career: even today Rossano has not forgiven.
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