TOKYO…HERE WE COME!

28th of June 2021, a dream becomes true: I’ll go to the Olympic Games in Tokyo!

I was looking forward to this day because I wouldn’t be sure I was selected until I read my name in the official communiqué.

I think that participating in the Olympics is every athlete’s dream, and it is also a dream of mine: I managed to realize a dream that I have been carrying with me since I was a little girl. I didn’t know in which sport (in fact as a child I practiced many), but I knew very well that watching that event on television was great fun and that, sooner or later, I would have liked to be watched by my family and no longer stand there on the couch with them cheering in front of the screen.

It’s more than a month away from the big appointment and the road to it is not yet finished, but I can still pull a line and give an account of this “journey” and I can say that it was not easy. Four very demanding years and continuously around the world to qualify the three endurance specialties: team pursuit, ominum and madison; the postponement of one year due to the ongoing pandemic and then these last months of great stress during which the selections took place. In short, not a fairy tale, but many sacrifices, determination, training and attention to details that the passion for that sport has made me overcome in order to smile today and put a ✔️ on one of the many dreams I have for my life.

Without some people this would’t have been possible and, although each of them knows perfectly well how grateful I am to them, I would like to thank them publicly. First of all an immense thanks to my partner Davide because he has never let me miss his support, not even for a second; thanks to my mom and dad who have always helped me with their precious advices; thanks to my trainer Davide Arzeni and my dietitian Erica Lombardi (although calling them trainer and dietitian is quite reductive…); thanks to my team, Valcar Travel&Service, and the Fiamme Oro sports group; thanks to my best friend Silvia Pollicini and all my teammates and national team.

Although I am immensely happy for this Olympics, it will be a little incomplete because I won’t share this experience with my partner (also an athlete of the national track team) and with the girls who after years of training and traveling together have not been selected.

Now it’s time to finish the preparation to get to August 1st with a great condition! For this reason, two great events await me:

• six days of races at the Fiorenzuola velodrome from 30th June to 5th July
• Baloise Ladies Tour, a stage road race from 8th to 11th July

Here the name of the other girls: Alzini Martina, Barbieri Rachele, Fidanza Martina, Guazzini Vittoria and Paternoster Letizia.

Olympics…here I come!