Italy’s pool swimming team will not be at the European Championships in Belgrade which precede the Paris Olympic Games by just over a month. Plausible choice, even if unusual for Italy which has always participated with the best possible national team in all international events even in the chaos of the last post-Covid seasons.
The location of the European Swimming Championships exactly in coinciding with the Sette Colli, which is the oldest swimming meeting in the world, organized by the FIN and which this year is a round number, turning 60 years old, the Italian Federation did not like it at all and decided not to send the swimming team to the pool in Belgrade.
There is no shortage of reasons, including technical ones, and they are completely acceptable: for some time the Fin has decreed the Sette Colli as the last qualifying event for Paris and therefore those who do not yet have the time limit will only be able to attempt to gain access to the Games in Rome (from 21 to 23 June). This situation would have removed a large part of the Italian athletes who could be protagonists in Belgrade from the list of those eligible to be called up, given that the Italian technical staff had already decided not to send the athletes already qualified for the Games to the European Championships so as not to affect the preparation in view of the most important event of the season.
Italy will instead send the best contingent for both open water swimming, diving and artistic swimming competitions. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth for an event in which many of the second-tier Italian athletes could have been protagonists or even excel and instead there won’t be this possibility for them, which also involved the collection of a fair amount intended for those who manage to get on the podium.
Against the backdrop of all this the resentments, the more or less veiled controversies between the current management of LEN, led by the Portuguese Antonio Silva and the old management staff, led by the president of LEN Paolo Barelli who led the European body until 2022. A sort of tug-of-war that has lasted practically for two years with the current continental leadership which has not had too many problems in including an event in the calendar that could easily have been placed after the Games (it would have been a good way to close the season for those who will not be able to be protagonists in Paris) or a little earlier in June to avoid the coincidence with the Sette Colli.
