Police officer is Italy’s most successful female athlete
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| Valentina Vezzali won nine Olympic medals, including six golds, making her one of fencing's all-time greats |
The fencer Valentina Vezzali, whose three Olympic and six
World Championship individual gold medals make her Italy’s most decorated
female athlete of all time, was born on this day in 1974 in the town of Iesi in
Marche.
The 44-year-old police officer, who also sits in the Italian
Chamber of Deputies as a representative for Marche, retired from competition
after the 2016 World Championships.
Her haul of six Olympics golds in total – three individual
and three from the team event – has not been bettered by any Italian athlete,
male or female.
Two other Italian fencers from different eras – Edoardo Mangiarotti and Nedo
Nadi – also finished their careers with six golds. Fencing has far and away
been Italy’s most successful Olympic discipline, accruing 49 gold medals and
125 medals in total, more than twice the number for any other sport.
Alongside the German shooter Ralf Schumann, the Slovak
slalom canoeist Michal Martikán and the Japanese judo player Ryoko Tani,
Vezzali is one of only four athletes in the history of the Summer Olympics to
have won five medals in the same individual event.
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| Valentina Vezzali sits in the Italian Chamber of Deputies |
She is married to the former professional footballer
Domenico Giugliano, with whom she has two sons, 12-year-old Pietro and
four-year-old Andrea, who was born in May 2013. A few months earlier, Valentina having won her final
Olympic gold in the team event at London 2012, where she was also the Italian
flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Born into a family originally from Emilia-Romagna – her
father was from Correggio and her mother from Quattro Castella – she grew up in
Iesi in the province of Ancona and took up fencing when she was just six years
old.
By the time she made her Olympic debut at the Atlanta Games
of 1996, Vezzali had already achieved an impressive collection of medals,
including a string of golds in junior European and World Championships and her
first senior gold, in the team event at the 1995 World Championships.
Her Olympic success story began immediately with team gold
and individual silver in Atlanta. She
achieved double gold at the Sydney Games of 2000, defending her individual
title successfully in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, which made her the
only fencer in Olympic history to win individual gold at three consecutive
Games.
In addition her nine Olympic medals won, including a silver and two bronze, at the World
Championships Vezzali won 15 gold medals (6 individual and 9 teams), five
silver and four bronze, plus 13 European championship golds, four silver and
four bronze.
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| Vezzali with her team gold medal at the 2014 World Championships |
Vezzali won fencing’s World Cup 11 times, running up a
record 67 match victories. She also numbered two golds at the Mediterranean
Games, four at the Universiade and 20 Italian titles (11 individual and 9
teams). The Italian sports newspaper,
Gazzetta dello Sport, made her their Italian sportswoman of the year on six
occasions.
Since joining the Polizia di Stato – the municipal police
force - in which she has risen to the rank of superintendent, Vezzali has
competed for the Fiamme Oro, the police sports team.
She had hoped to compete in a sixth Olympics in Rio di
Janeiro in 2016 but failed to qualify for the individual competition, while the
Games on this occasion did not include a team event.
A celebrity in Italy – she participated in the 2009 series
of Ballando con le Stelle (Dancing with the Stars), the Italian version of the
hit UK show Strictly Come Dancing – she launched her political career with the
2013 general election, winning a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.
Campaigning on issues that included sport and physical
education, health and nutrition and women’s rights, she was elected under the
banner of Scelta Civica (Civic Choice), the centrist party founded by former
prime minister Mario Monti, although she has since distanced herself from the
party over their decision to support Silvio Berlusconi’s more right-leaning
Forza Italia at this year’s elections.
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| The Palazzo Pianetti in Iesi |
Travel tip:
Situated about 20km (12 miles) inland from the Adriatic
coast, Vezzali’s home town of Iesi is impressive for the massive walls that
surround its medieval centre, which is built on Roman foundations on a ridge
overlooking the valley of the Esino river. The centre of the town is the
attractive Piazza Federico II, where a regular market is held, and there are a
number of interesting palaces, towers and churches, including a
Romanesque-Gothic cathedral.
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| A porticoed street in Correggio |
Travel tip:
The small town of Correggio, where Vezzali’s family
originated, can be found in the Po valley, about 20km (12 miles) northeast of
Reggio Emilia. An interesting town full
of history, it is thought to have developed around an 11th century
castle. Although the original walls were demolished as the town expanded, much
of the medieval centre remains. The town was the home of the Renaissance artist
Antonio Allegri, also known as Correggio, to whom a monument was created by the
sculptor Vincenzo Vela in Piazza Quirino.
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