«Is he there or is he there?». The former fencer Elisa Di Francisca said this last night during a Rai broadcast, referring to the words of the swimmer Benedetta Pilato, who defined herself as "too happy" despite the failure to medal in the 100m breaststroke final of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which 'he saw her finish fourth, just one hundredth away from bronze.
A gaffe that triggered bitter controversy on social media and even among professionals. Among them, Federica Pellegrini, former queen of Italian swimming, who defended Pilato thus: «Each of us is different, each of us has different dreams and different expectations! It's nice to see (from the outside) winning golds in ways that may seem simple, but that's definitely not the case! Sometimes a fourth place, even if just for a short while, is our biggest dream!
After the fuss, Di Francisca called the blue swimmer to say mea culpa. “I apologized, I owed him,” she explained. Adding: «Far be it from me to judge defeats - added the former foil player - That sentence is unfortunate, but that's how I am, without filters. I don't know her story, I didn't understand what she meant: I explained on the phone, she said her opinion. I would like to meet her after the Games."
(Unioneonline)