Ital-nuoto flies thanks to training and recruitment

Blue water, winning water. The first three days of competition at La Défense gave Italy 13 medals, counting yesterday's two silvers. Successes built, desired, conquered, but 'there is still a lot of work to do,' says that perfectionist Riccardo Vernole, 56, technical commissioner of the National Paralympic Swimming Team since 2009.

It's 9 a.m., the warm-up pool is a bubble of dreams and muscles to be revitalised in view of the morning's qualifications. Vernole and the other technicians give the boys the final instructions. Now it's time to get serious. Until 2008, Ital-nuoto returned from the Paralympics with 2-3 medals, then the change of pace thanks to the foresight of Roberto Valori, president of Finp, the Italian Paralympic Swimming Federation. He chose Vernole as his technical guide because of his historical experience in the Paralympic world that grew out of his collaboration with Dr. Antonio Maglio in Ostia: 'Back then, there were good coaches,' recalls the coach, 'but something had to be done outside the pool to involve potential athletes. Without coaches with specific skills for the disabled, it would have been impossible to recruit new champions'. The project is ambitious: training of coaches who respect the various disabilities and are able to enhance the residual functional potential, and presence in the territory. Over the years, knowledge has been transferred from the technical point of view and of what Paralympic swimming means, from the regulations to the qualification criteria, the quality of training and of the clubs has been raised: 'However, we were still weak on athletes in the higher classes, such as S10 (swimmers with mild problems, ndr) or the visually impaired. We sought them out, as in the case of Carlotta Gilli or Stefano Raimondi, we explained to them that there are strong opponents in the Paralympics too, that one can grow in the Paralympics and, not to exclude Fin competitions, that any economic income can support professional figures such as a nutritionist, physiotherapist useful for further improving preparation'. So much so that in Tokyo, the record-breaking edition in the pool, Italy had brought athletes covering all disabilities from S1 to S14 and that means leaving no one behind.

The initial working group (Vernole, Federica Fornasiero, Vincenzo Allocco, and Enrico Testa) has been expanded to include Max Tosin and Matteo Poli, who specialises in video analysis: "Each athlete has his or her own characteristics," explains Vernole, "and we try to tailor a swimming technique to each athlete so that the swim, within the limits of the regulations, is as efficient as possible. It is clear, for example, that Manuel Bortuzzo will never be able to swim a classic breaststroke as he has lost the use of his legs, so we have designed one specifically for his abilities'. In Paris, Italy is like a city of 42 people, where everyone is working for a single goal: the 28 athletes with their coaches and medical staff representing an entire federation that has almost 2,000 members, half of whom are athletes, 172 sports clubs, 682 coaches and 918 executives, medical staff, physiotherapists and classifiers. The record of 39 medals in Tokyo, including 11 gold medals, but above all with twenty athletes out of 29 summoned on the podium, demonstrating a large and structured movement, are a very high bar: 'There are many 39 medals,' confirms Vernole, 'and the Paralympics is the EVENT with many, new athletes at international level, but I hope that our National Team will be able to be among the first three nations in the world behind the battleships China and Great Britain. The numbers speak for Italy: it has won the World Championship medals three times (London 2019, Funchal 2022, Manchester 2023) and has a network of clubs, from Naples to Verona, from Rome to Varese, that make the difference. As is the case with the Varese Polha, led by president Daniela Colonna-Preti. Active since 1982, thanks to Giacinto Zoccali, who realised the power of sport in opening up new lives for the disabled, it has 160 members and 90 volunteers including technicians and physiotherapists. The Polha brought seven swimmers to Paris, including Barlaam, Amodeo and Terzi, led by coach Max Tosin and his assistant Micaela Biava. In short, it was a success, but "there is still the great worry of hooking up with disabled children who would benefit greatly from sport," confesses Colonna-Preti.

Yes, recruitment. Every medal in Paris began this way, with an invitation to try competitive sport. And the next project to broaden the base goes in that direction: 'Once the Paralympics are over,' concludes Vernole, 'we will focus, in collaboration with the Fin, on a new format for swimming instructors, which will also include specific expertise on Paralympic swimming. Only if a coach is familiar with Paralympic rules, criteria, and training methods, will he be able, when he finds a disabled boy in the pool, to give him the right directions, to propose a working method suited to his abilities'. In short, make him fall in love and make him start dreaming big.