Twenty-one year old Nicoli is fighting for light weights. The mother: “He is enthusiastic about the village, he rides his bike and is having fun”
PAVIA. The heir of Giovanni Parisi. This alone would make anyone’s legs tremble, but not 21-year-old Rebecca Nicoli who, since Flash’s victory in Seoul in 1988, is the first Pavia-born boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games. Even the weights are approaching, even if Parisi won gold in the featherweight, while Nicoli will fight on the Tokyo square in the lightweight. What matters, however, is that from 1988 to 2021 it was 33 years before a boxer from Pavia once again played an Olympic ring.
“Her strength is tranquility – explains mother Alessandra Sozzi who, with her husband Massimo Nicoli, went to the national team retreat in Santa Maria degli Angeli, in Umbria, before Rebecca flew to Japan – We saw her serene and in a better shape than usual. She told us she worked hard and she was pleased with our visit ».
That Rebecca was a predestined one, the sports director of Pavia Boxing Giancarlo Mezzadra, who knows about champions, immediately realized: this girl who had appeared at the gym almost by chance, thanks to a flyer advertising boxing, had shown immediately an innate talent and a heavy punch that always makes the difference on the square. Of course, then there was the care of the coach Gianni Birardi and a company that immediately closed around her to make her work intensely and in the right way. In his third match, in Piedmont, his opponent Vittoria De Carlo, cornered, pointed out with disappointment to the teacher that Rebecca was hurting, the first sign of her future history.
They soon noticed her talent in the national team and even the Olympic gold medalist Roberto Cammarelle, technical director of the Fiamme Oro Sports Group, immediately wanted to sign her. When Rebecca learned that athletes weighing 60 kg and not 64 kg participated in the Games, she decided, with the help of the president of the Ap Pavia Maurizio Niutta, to undergo a diet to drop the category. She seemed to be in full swing by now, but here’s the first hitch: the night before stepping into the ring, in London, for the qualifying tournament, the stop imposed by Covid arrived. Rebecca did not give up and continued the preparation but in November 2020 she underwent a new stop for hip surgery. With great fortitude, she overcame this too and finally last June in Paris she got on the square to meet the British Caroline Dubois for the Olympic pass, but she beat her on points.
The chance for qualification came in a dry match with the Hellenic Nikoleta Pita. Rebecca made the most of the opportunity by establishing herself with a unanimous verdict, 5-0. At the end of the meeting his comment was: «The victory was fantastic, I’m really happy. I struggled to conquer it because after the surgery on my right hip I had to get back in shape. For now I am at 60%, but in Tokyo I will be perfect ».
Rebecca from Japan sent a message to her parents saying that everything is fine, that the Olympic village is fun and a unique experience. He goes around on his bicycle and is waiting to get into the ring. “Tokyo – he recalled – is the dream of a 4-year-old girl who saw the Athens Games on television and said to herself I want to get there”.
.