Father, Mother and Golden Daughter: A Family of Champions

Sansepolcro (Arezzo), May 26, 2025 – A true “ podium ” family . Dad and daughter champions in sports within two years of each other: they have in fact graduated as Italian champions in athletics and Triathlon in their respective categories. And in 1999, the mother was also an Italian youth champion in artistic gymnastics, free body specialties and swimming.

The protagonists are Claudio Galliani , 40 years old, teacher of Sports and Motor Sciences at the IIS Città di Sansepolcro, his daughter Matilde , 11 years old and her mother Erika Alunni , 34 years old, swimming instructor, united by their passion for sport, running and the obstacles to overcome that have allowed them to achieve national goals.

In 2023, Matilde won the title of Italian champion of OCR obstacle course races, which combine the race itself with the overcoming of both natural obstacles (climbing over tree trunks, crossing rivers, overcoming round bales of hay) and artificial ones (wooden walls of various heights to overcome, climbing on a rope, balance tests, suspension tests such as the horizontal ladder or the multiring with rings).

The race in Villar Dora (Turin), in her age group, took place over a 1100-meter dirt track where 21 obstacles were distributed, 6 of which were suspended. Trained by the already award-winning Elite athlete of the Italian National Team, Noemi Orologio, and her boyfriend Christian Burani, Matilde climbed to the top step of the podium.

Although very young, she can already boast a very respectable sports curriculum built over the years with passion, dedication and a great desire to have fun through sports, always with a smile. She currently plays for Libertas Città di Castello and trains with the trainer, Paolo Tanzi. Two years later, a few days ago, another prestigious success came to the family, this time seeing dad Claudio climb onto the highest podium at the Italian Triathlon Cross championships (the variant of the classic triathlon with mountain bike and trail running instead of bike and road running) in Gavoi (Nuoro), in the middle of Gennargentu in Sardinia.

The distances included 1km swimming in the lake, 26km of mountain biking and 6km of trail running to be done all in one go without a moment's rest. With 2h and 14 minutes of racing Claudio managed to bring back the title of Italian champion, category M1 (40-45 years). Registered with the "Triathlon Altotevere" team, section of the Atletica Avis Sansepolcro, Galliani trains constantly in the pool in Città di Castello and up and down the hills of the area, a perfect natural setting with ideal routes for training mountain biking and trail running.