Federica Pellegrini

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Federica Pellegrini
Federica Pellegrini e Luca Marin (cropped).jpg
Personal information
National team  Italy
Born (1988-08-05) 5 August 1988 (age 35)
Mirano, Italy
Height 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 65 kg (143 lb)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle
Club C.C. Aniene
Coach Matteo Giunta

Federica Pellegrini (Italian pronunciation: [fedeˈriːka pelleˈɡriːni]; born 5 August 1988)[1] is an Italian swimmer. A native of Mirano, in the province of Venice, she holds the women's 200 m freestyle world records (long course and short course), and won a Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Pellegrini became the first woman ever to breach the 4 minute barrier in 400 m freestyle with the time 3:59.15. Pellegrini is the first female Olympic champion in the history of Italian swimming; she is also the only Italian swimmer to have set world records in more than one event.

Biography

Career

Pellegrini's first international podium was at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where she won the silver medal in the 200 m freestyle at the age of 16, becoming the youngest Italian athlete ever to win an Olympic medal in an individual event.

Pellegrini's first long course gold medal came at the 2008 European Championships in Eindhoven, where she won the 400 m freestyle setting a world record (4:01.53).

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she arrived as the world-record holder and favourite for the gold medal in the 400 m freestyle, but only finished 5th in the final. On the same day, she recovered from that disappointment by setting a world record in the heats of the 200 m freestyle; in the final, she broke her own world record (1:54.82) and won her first Olympic gold medal.

Pellegrini also proved her strength in short course events at the 2008 European Short Course Championships in Rijeka when she won the gold medal in the 200 m freestyle at a world-record pace (1:51.85). At the 2009 Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Pellegrini broke the world record in the 400 m freestyle with a time of 4:00.41 to better Joanne Jackson's record of 4:00.66.[2]

At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Pellegrini broke the world record again in the 400 m freestyle with a time of 3:59.15, winning the gold medal and in doing so becoming the first female swimmer to break the 4 minute barrier in the event; she won the gold medal also in the 200 m freestyle and she broke her own world record with a time of 1:52.98. At 2009 European Short Course Championships in Istanbul she broke the world record in the 200 m freestyle with a time of 1:51.17. At the 2010 European Championships in Budapest Pellegrini won the bronze medal in the 800 m freestyle, behind Lotte Friis and Ophélie-Cyrielle Etienne, and the gold medal in the 200 m freestyle with a time of 1:55.45; in the same year, she announced that she would be working with Laure Manadou's former coach, Philippe Lucas.

At the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, Federica won the gold medal in the 400 m freestyle with a time of 4:01.97, becoming the second female swimmer after Laure Manaudou to win the gold medal in this event at two consecutive World Aquatics Championships. Two days later, she won the gold medal in the 200 m freestyle too with a time of 1:55:58, becoming the first female swimmer ever to won this title at two consecutive editions of the World Aquatics Championships; after the success in Shanghai, she parted ways with her French coach and began working with Federico Bonifacenti.

In May 2012, she was surprisingly excluded from the final of the 400 metre freestyle at the 2012 European Aquatics Championships, after winning two gold medals in other events (200 metre freestyle and 4×200 m freestyle relay) and a bronze medal in 4×100 freestyle relay). [3]

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Pellegrini finished fifth in the 400 metres freestyle with a time of 4:04.50 and the 200 metres freestyle with a time of 1:56.73.

After the Olympics, Pellegrini declared she wouldn't take part to 200 and 400 metres freestyle at 2013 World Aquatics Championships to take a gap year. She chose to prepare herself for 200 metres backstroke competition to compete for Italy at World Championships. Anyway, with a last minute decision, Pellegrini took part to 200 metres freestyle event at 2013 World Championships and eventually won a silver medal with a time of 1:55.14, her best since Rome. Pellegrini won the silver medal behind Missy Franklin.

At the World Aquatics Championships held in Kazan (Russia) in 2015, she won the silver medal in 200 metres freestyle behind Katie Ledecky and ahead of Missy Franklin with a time of 1:55.32, and the silver medal in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay behind the United States. By winning the silver medal in the individual 200 metres freestyle, she became the first female swimmer in history to get a medal in the same event at six consecutive World Championships.

Private life

Since August, 2011, she has been in a relationship with fellow swimmer, Filippo Magnini,[4] having previously been engaged to another teammate, Luca Marin.[5]

Personal bests

She currently holds 1 world records (WR), 3 European records (ER) and 10 National records (NR). Her personal bests (as of the 30 July 2009) are:

Event Long course (year) Short course (year)
50 m freestyle 25.47 (2004) 25.02 (2004)
100 m freestyle 53.55 (2009) Sport records icon NR.svg 52.86 (2013) Sport records icon NR.svg
200 m freestyle 1:52.98 (2009) World record 1:51.17 (2009) World record
400 m freestyle 3:59.15 (2009) 20px 3:57.59 (2011) Sport records icon NR.svg
800 m freestyle 8:24.99 (2010) 8:15.20 (2010)
100 m backstroke 1.00.69 (2013) 58.80 (2013)
200 m backstroke 2:08.05 (2013) 2:03.75 (2013) Sport records icon NR.svg
200 m butterfly 2:08.69 (2013)
4×50 m freestyle relay 1:37.56 (2013) Sport records icon NR.svg
4×100 m freestyle relay 3:39.18 Sport records icon NR.svg 3:39.18 (2006) Sport records icon NR.svg
4×200 m freestyle relay 7:46.57 (2009) Sport records icon NR.svg 7:50.39 (2006) Sport records icon NR.svg
4×50 m medley relay 1:47:05 (2008) Sport records icon NR.svg
4×100 m medley relay 4:04.90 (2008) Sport records icon NR.svg

See also

References

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  2. http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/21514.asp#RT
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

  • Lua error in Module:SportsReference at line 5: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  • Official fan club website (Italian)
  • Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
Records
Preceded by
Franziska van Almsick
Laure Manaudou
Women's 200 metre freestyle
world record holder (long course)

27 March 2007 – 28 March 2007
11 August 2008 – present
Succeeded by
Laure Manaudou
Incumbent
Preceded by Women's 200 metre freestyle
world record holder (short course)

14 December 2008 – 7 December 2014
Succeeded by
Sarah Sjöström
Preceded by Women's 400 metre freestyle
world record holder (long course)

27 June 2009 – August 2014
Succeeded by
Katie Ledecky
Awards
Preceded by World Swimmer of the Year
2009
Succeeded by
Rebecca Soni
Preceded by European Swimmer of the Year
2009–2011
Succeeded by
Ranomi Kromowidjojo