Ottavio De Montis, from amputation to medals at the freediving world championships: «In the water I feel like Superman»

He too achieved a treble : three silvers just won at the freediving world championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro , seventy-three kilometers from Udine, where Ottavio Demontis arrived as an outsider on 16 November. " Never before have I participated in a world championship race ," he says on the phone from Nuoro, his city.

On Monday 20th he returned home as a revelation athlete: vice world champion three times , in as many specialties, at 48 years old, in the Paralympic category . Because Demontis got sick twice: the first at seven years old, when he was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a highly malignant tumor. “Stuff that eats bones,” he explains. Hence the odyssey of treatment in Bologna. «Healed thanks to my mother Antonina who never stopped giving me strength and courage». At twenty-one, he fell from his motorbike. A deep wound. A bacterium that infects flesh and pushes doctors to decide on amputation. “I've never had a problem with it,” he specifies. But above all: «In water there are no differences. In our first element we are all equal."

How do you feel with three pieces of silver around your neck?

"Very good".

How much effort is behind it?

«A lot. I train four times a week out of seven. Two in the pool and two in the gym. We enter the water at half past nine in the evening. We leave at eleven. Then I have an hour and change of travel ahead of me to do the reverse route, from Olbia to Nuoro."

Who gives him the strength?

"Passion. I have always been a sportsman. But before I discovered freediving I was a bodybuilder."

How did it get into the water?

«I love the sea, viscerally. I really live it, I've always gone fishing. I love all the shades of the sea. Especially blue. Cobalt is my favorite."

Which specialties do the three medals correspond to?

«To dynamics with fins, to dynamics without fins and to statics. The first specialty is also called underwater breaststroke: the distance covered without breathing counts. I covered 70 meters and ten centimeters. Almost a lap and a half, in the fifty-person pool. With fins I reached 117 meters and 40. On the third day of the competition we did the statics and I surpassed myself: 6 minutes, 3 seconds and 4 tenths. I lost the world title by a whisker."

How could you not breathe for all that time?

«It's a mental exercise. In hypoxia the perception of the body, time and space changes."

Yes, but how do you do it?

«Many hours of training. And meditation. Body and mind can adapt to increasingly lower oxygen levels. You just need to understand when is the right time to go out and not go into a blackout."

What path did you take to get to the World Cup?

«I was called up to the national team after the Italian Championships in June, in Turin, where I came first in my class and third in the general classification».

How are the categories divided in the Paralympic competitions?

«In class one there are intellectually disabled people. In 2, to which I belong, athletes who are missing a limb compete. Class 3 includes the blind, class 4 includes multiple amputees or those who cannot use their hands and feet. Athletes with Down syndrome belong to 5. In some classes, but not in mine, there are also subcategories."

Did you expect the treble?

"No. We were about seventy athletes, arriving from five continents. After Turin and joining the national team, I worked hard. Even in the summer, even when the pools were closed. But I couldn't imagine an exploit of these proportions. For this I thank my companions from "Passione apnea", the Olbia team with which I train. But also and above all our guide, Antommaso Fresi, a master and a leader. He was also there in Lignano: the National Federation, of which he is a technician, called him to lend a hand in the organisation. For me it was an indispensable support."

How did you get to Olbia?

«I signed up with the freediving company to take a course: when I went fishing, I had difficulty going to depth. I didn't know how to compensate. So I contacted the club and discovered a love for freediving. From the basic lessons I moved on to the more difficult ones. And here I am."

Do you never compete at sea?

«Yes, in the summer, when you do freediving in constant weight: you go down holding on to a cable».

Where is it better, in the pool or at the seaside?

«I like both environments».

The first of the three medals won in Lignano was in which specialty?

«The underwater frog. Then I did the dynamics with the fins and finally the statics. It's really true that hunger comes from eating. Statics is not my passion, I usually never do this race. Before Lignano, my personal best was four minutes and 20 seconds. I got to six and 3, like I said."

What does he usually eat?

«I take great care of my diet. Very few carbohydrates and many protein foods, varying greatly between meat and fish."

At breakfast?

«Two eggs with oats and Greek yogurt with which I prepare the pancake, along with two other egg whites».

Sweets?

«I like them but I don't touch them. This too is part of the necessary deprivations. However, I try not to take too much time away from my woman: she believes in me and in this dream of mine."

Lunch?

«Seventy grams of rice, 200 of chicken, vegetables and fruit».

At dinner?

«Proteins and cooked vegetables».

How tall is he?

«Six feet tall, and I weigh 72 kilos. Eighteen less than my life as a bodybuilder."

How did he lose his leg?

«Amputated at twenty-one after a fall on a motorbike and an infection. It's the same leg where I developed Ewing's sarcoma as a child, at the age of seven. In 1984, when I got sick, nine out of ten children couldn't cope. I've seen a lot of them die too. My hospital companions in Bologna, where my family took me for treatment."

How do you survive suffering as a child?

«Certainly the good Lord wanted me to continue living. But my mother also constantly told me that I would get better. My mother Antonina is my rock. Every child blindly trusts their mother."

At twenty-one where did you find the energy to do it again?

«In my mother and again in God. Which I have seen in my life. I am a miracle worker of the Lord."

What is discipline?

«Sport has been a great help to me in life. I have never felt sorry for myself. I have always welcomed pain and failures as part of a training process. Sport is a metaphor for everyday life: by losing and making mistakes you learn to understand where to start again. You just have to be able to keep calm and always find the good side."

What work do you do in life?

«The accountant at the Nuorese Reclamation Consortium».

Can't you rest now?

«Yes, now is the time for gratification and celebration. But the road ahead of me is long. I am ambitious: I dream of the five circles, the illusion of any athlete. For me even more: not having a leg is the greatest strength in my life. I joke about it and I often repeat it: I always get up on the right foot."

Do you use your prosthesis in the water?

"Never. The beauty of water is that it cancels out physical differences. I wouldn't even want the prosthesis in the water: I would perceive it as a false thing. When I dive, I feel free, I relax and I can give my best."

How many seas does he know?

"Many. I'm a big traveler. Last year in South Africa I cage dived to see great white sharks up close. I saw the best coral reef in Jordan. The beauty of the sea is that after twenty meters everything changes."

In what sense?

«Up to twenty meters, the water takes you upwards. Once you cross that limit, the sea attracts you. You need to close your arms, keeping them at your sides. You swoop down, you travel a meter and a half a second. The only action to take is to compensate. We fly into the blue. From cobalt to all other shades. I feel like Superman."