The lord of the open waters Paltrinieri and the 10 km “This is how I breathe freedom”

The World Swimming Championships in Budapest: tomorrow the last Olympic test takes place: you compete in the artificial basin of Lake Lupa

the character / 1

SENT ABUDAPEST

On the pier of Lupa beach Gregorio Paltrinieri laughs. Three medals, as had already happened in 2019, but here, in Hungary, all his courage came out and there is still one race missing, the one for which the blue changed his life.

Tomorrow’s 10km is the reason why the 2016 Olympic champion revolutionized habits, chose a different technician than the one who raised him, fixed his swim, built another approach to rivals. The desire to open up to waters free from intuition became motivation: “I chose the sea to breathe freedom and, while swimming, I understood that we must protect it”. The freedom to stay out of the lanes and play without patterns, without limits, without being told what to choose because he doesn’t want to do it and mixes, like the latest generation middle-distance runners who provoke him. They tease him. Yesterday’s 5 km is the first race in which only athletes arriving from the swimming pool go to the podium, a turning point for the cross-country that was once wild and now much more tame, but always a circuit that maintains certain characteristics.

Lake Lupa, north of Budapest, is artificial and filled by a spring that supplies half the Hungarian capital. It is not exactly the place to discover nature in the wild as the open waters promised themselves to do in their roaring years, but it remains one of the places to breathe, in which to broaden the horizon. It is the panorama that Paltrinieri sought to stop staring at the line at the bottom of the pool, to mess up his career and lengthen it, grease it with medals. When he discovered the bottom he took the boredom out of his arms. The open waters gave him back a vision and, to demonstrate the harmony found, he decided to put his face on a circuit of tests for amateurs and professionals with the aim of raising public awareness on environmental issues. The project is called “Dominate the water”, stages that want to be a hymn to the sea and its protection: “There are many ways in which we can help the environment, it is a serious problem whose effects we continue to touch and precisely in this summer of drought the urgency is evident. I play sports, it’s not that I have solutions to such enormous questions, but I feel like I am fighting to ensure that the places I frequent, the beaches, are treated with the respect they deserve ». Next date, 30 and 31 July in Lignano Sabbiadoro You can swim with 3 competition formats for all ages and levels of preparation: “Only sustainable material, no motor boats, we try to give examples, suggestions, we take care of the places in which we train. We want to give back ».

At Lake Lupa the Italian national team also placed a fourth place in Acerenza in the 5 km won by the usual Wellbrock, with Romanchuk, third, wrapping the podium with the Ukrainian flag despite the protocol prohibiting it. Above all, the bronze of Gabrielleschi, a recent graduate in criminology, is added to the brilliant ranking.

One last test remains and this time Paltrinieri has a day off, his protest has moved the federation: “They are considering changing the program of the next world championship to guarantee us a break between swimming in the pool and the bottom”. The lord of the waters dictates the law, we hope pure fashions. –

© breaking latest news