Federica Pellegrini (ITA) has confirmed her intention to seek gold in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
With that in mind, the 22-year-old will return from a break on Corsica to Verona and coach Stefano Morini mid-September. Italian and French media quote Pellegrini as saying: "Yes, it is crazy ... I did not find many people who say to me that it is possible. But Alberto [Castagnetti] believed in it. This is enough for me. It was our secret. I did not say that I was going to earn four gold medals! But I am going to try."
Castagnetti, who died after heart surgery last year, took Pellegrini from impressive junior to Olympic 200m silver in 2004 and then gold in 2008 and world 200m and 400m champion. He believed that his charge could also lead the world over 800m, while Pellegrini likes the 100m, even though she is off the pace of the very best sprinters (we are yet to see what she is capable of in post-shiny times when rested for a 100m race).
News of her 2012 plans surfaced this week amid speculation of tension between Pellegrini and Morini in Budapest, where she took bronze in the 800m, gold in the 200m but then withdrew, with a fever, from the 400m. That was won by Rebecca Adlington, the Brit who claimed the Olympic 400m crown in Beijing in a final in which Pellegrini did not swim her own race and paid a hefty price: no medal, let alone victory for the world record holder.
After the 200m in Budapest, Pellegrini revealed the tension building with her new coach when she said: "He [Castagnetti] knew how to push me. Morini does not yet know how to speak to me. I'm not a robot."
She also said: "I am not going to shut up about my emotions. I must learn to live with him, to be closer. He is not a clone of Castagnetti."
A new journey begins mid-September.
