The 25-year-old from Quartis talks about himself after the world champion triumph in the free body “After two skipped Olympics I no longer believed it, it was my redemption”
SASSARI. “After a month in Villasimius on the beach with friends, I went to the World Cup in Japan ready to wreak havoc on the world.” It is all thanks to the sun of his Sardinia if Nicola Bartolini won gold in the free body two weeks ago at the World Gymnastics Championships in Kytakyushu, the first Italian in history. «A month of total relaxation, wake up late, zero training, only dives and aperitifs at sunset. It did me good, it helped me to recharge my batteries and above all to overcome the blow after the failure to qualify for the Tokyo Games for a game of joints in the Doha Cup stage that cut me off. I was destroyed, I even thought about giving up everything. But it was a moment, how could I throw away 21 years of sacrifices not only mine but also of my parents who made every day 30 kilometers Quartu-Cagliari and back to train? That was the push to win the World Cup, my redemption. After all, gymnastics is like life: anything can happen, the important thing is to react immediately and not give up even for a moment. A lesson I was about to forget ».
To understand what determination is, you need to listen to the story of Nicola, 25, from Quartu, our lord of the free body, the star who grew up at Amsicora, in Cagliari, and arrived in Milan at the age of 12 on the recommendation of the federal technician Maurizio Allievi. .
The truth is that he never stopped believing in it, despite two missed Olympics.
«In 2016 I broke my shoulder a few months before the Rio Olympics. A bad injury. After the operation, I was stopped for several months. I felt unlucky. Then rehabilitation, difficult. And the desire that returned. As a sign of defiance, I got the word “unlucky” tattooed on my neck. In the end I won ».
His relationship with the Olympics is cursed: in 2016 the shoulder, in 2021 the mockery of the joints. How did he take it?
“Very bad. I immediately packed my bags and with my girlfriend, Anastasia, I went home to Quartu. It burned me too much, in April I had won the bronze medal at the European Championships in Basel and I was hoping this was the right time, instead … I haven’t even seen the Olympics on TV ».
It will refer to the 2024 Games.
“I have to get the pass but not for the individual. The goal is to go to the Games for the team. I Niccolò Mozzato, Stefano Patro, Lorenzo Casali with the six tools, Marco Lodadio with the rings, free body, vaulting and parallels, And then Ludovico Edalli. We are very strong ».
How does it feel to be the lord of the free body?
«It was surreal, I knew I had done a good exercise but I only had confirmation of it when I saw my name on the board, I’m still metabolizing. It doesn’t seem possible to me after everything that has happened to me. ‘
Yuri Chechi honored her, said her landing is unique in the world.
«I am honored. It is not easy to return to earth after flying! ».
You became famous at the age of 13 thanks to the reality show on Mtv “Parallel Lives”.
«I had become famous without having won anything yet, only for being on TV. The girls stopped me in the street to ask for my photo. Now I would like people to recognize me as a world champion, it would be nice ».
She is not part of a sports group of the state, “the fault of the tattoos” she denounced. Has anything changed after gold?
«I hope so, I am waiting for an answer. I would very much like to be part of a military corps because I could earn a living with my passion, gymnastics. On the other hand, it is not from tattoos (he has 50 all over his body, ed) that an athlete is judged. Anyway, I just made another one on the calf to celebrate the victory: a skull with the number 1 and the sun of the Japanese flag ».
Thinking about his beginnings, when the child Nicola Bartolini makes the first jumps in the Amsicora gym, in Cagliari …
“Kill, how far I’ve come.”