Short TrackBeijing 2022
Justin Setterfield
After the attacks of the Olympic champion in recent days, today the federal president spoke at 360 ° about the situation. Also setting stakes for Arianna's eventual four-year period towards Milan-Cortina 2026.
Friday 18 February 2022 8 minutes reading time
The clash has been total for some time, years now, so much so that Arianna Fontana had decided to move to Hungary to train, together with her husband Anthony Lobello who follows her as a personal coach, therefore outside the federal short track cadres.
The champion from Valtellina, since after the gold in the 500 meters in Beijing 2022, reiterating her thoughts again, however, even after the other competitions of these Olympic Games, the last of which on Wednesday with the silver in the 1500 that won her crowned the most successful Italian athlete in history in five circles with 11 medals, she thundered against the Italian Ice Sports Federation and teammates as well, referring to unpleasant episodes that took place on the track between more or less voluntary clashes.
Fontana asked that the FISG, among other things with a triumphal balance sheet in this review since, so far, the only two blue golds come from the ice with the feat of Arianna and the mixed doubles of curling (and the short track has never gone so well, with four medals overall), take a step in the direction of a collaboration that could lead her to play her sixth Olympics, in Milan-Cortina 2026. Federal number 1, Andrea Gios, spoke today in a press conference at Casa Italia, responding blow by blow to his most representative athlete.
“Arianna hasn't spoken to me for months, that is, since the delivery of CONI's Gold Collars on 12 October - reports“ La Gazzetta dello Sport ”- I knew she would have vented, but as a Federation we have nothing to blame. We have always worked with the utmost care, in the interest of the Federation and Arianna. She is our most important asset, but there are rules, it's not that athletes can choose their national team coaches. Our goal is to make all athletes grow, including Arianna.
She was placed in the conditions that we considered optimal to be able to carry out her business, following her and her husband-coach's requests without any repercussions on the group. And the results prove it, his and the team's. The FISG has taken on all the expenses for Arianna's preparation in these three years; Lobello presented us with a program and we fully complied with the requests of the coach, supporting all the expenses, from the apartment to the machinery, when Arianna decided to break away from the national team and go to train in Hungary. When the conditions to stay there failed, and Arianna and Anthony had to rejoin the blue group, there was no marginalization on our part. Lobello was simply not the technical manager of the national team, so he had limitations. But he was certainly not prevented from training Arianna ”.
Referring precisely to the coach-husband, Gios also specifies in a future key: “We do not believe that Lobello has what it takes to be the coach of the entire short track national team. We have 18 other athletes, there is not only Arianna. I do not know if you are still claiming this request now and making it your main point, as we have not spoken to each other since 12 October. Even here in Beijing you avoid me, you have also avoided the meetings at Casa Italia with the other teammates. In any case, Ippolito Sanfratello, our general secretary, has always kept contacts with Arianna almost daily ”.
And on the accusations against a teammate (present at these Olympics, Fontana confirmed), the president of the FISG is not satisfied: "The most out of tune part of Arianna's utterances concerns this affair, which moreover dates back to three years ago, which we had dealt with and clarified at the time and for us it was dead and buried. It had emerged that it was a typical situation of a common training, in which a female athlete has to deal with companions who have a much more important physical structure, so the contacts that can be in the short track are not the same as there would be among women.
These same men that you accuse have trained for years with Arianna, they have made her grow, they have brought her up to these medals. I find his exit unpleasant, it destroyed the team's atmosphere in such an important moment. I really believe in the group, we clash and clarify each other in the locker room, then the group wins. Arianna is an extraordinary champion, I need a leader. During an Olympics no such declarations are made ”.
Federal elections will take place on March 19, Gios is the only candidate and underlines that “before the renewal of the Council it makes no sense to discuss this case. It will be one of our priorities after the election, we will certainly try to facilitate and help it, as we have done so far. But if Lobello wants to become the coach of the national team, I immediately say that it is not possible ”.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Social media engagement
Più letti in Sport invernali
Da Nayeli Mariotti Cavagnet a Manuel Contoz e Magalì Miraglio Mellano, tutti i giovani vincenti nei tricolori estivi di biathlon
Alla Carnia Arena di Forni Avoltri la rassegna nazionale giovanile per juniores, giovani e aspiranti: tutti i risultati tra le Short Individual di ieri e la chiusura odierna con le Sprint.
117