From Potenza to Berlin, Flavio Mangiamele wears the Italian national team for the 2025 Universiade.

POTENZA - The young swimmer from Potenza, Flavio Mangiamele, has received his first call-up to the national team. He will be part of the Italian team competing in the thirty-second Universiade in Berlin from July 16 to 23.

Flavio Mangiamele, born in Potenza in 2003, grew up at the Montereale Park swimming pool with Invicta Nuoto Potenza, coached by Vincenzo Ostuni and Ylenia Figliuolo, until the age of 18. Forced to leave Basilicata to train professionally in a 50-meter pool, Mangiamele spent a year in Caserta before moving to Turin, where for the past two years he has been training with Centro Nuoto Torino, the same club that trains Benedetta Pilato, Alessandro Miretti, Ludovico Viberti, and many other Italian swimming champions.

Due to the chronic absence of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the entire Basilicata region, Flavio Mangiamele, like other Lucanian swimmers such as Acerenza, Marsicano, and others, was forced to leave home to pursue his competitive career elsewhere. "It was a forced decision," notes coach Vincenzo Ostuni, "also because the only facility we have in Potenza is municipal property, and the space and schedules available are insufficient to host a competitive event at a certain level. Flavio was already a promising athlete before leaving Basilicata, having won a bronze medal in the 50-meter breaststroke at the Italian Championships. Over the past three years, he has gradually climbed the ranks in the fast breaststroke, competing in the 50-meter and 100-meter events, where he is now among the top five Italian athletes."

Mangiamele, now 21, had been followed by the national team's coaching staff for some time, and now the Italian technical director Cesare Butini has decided to test the youngsters in an important context like the World University Championships.

"This call-up is a source of great satisfaction for swimming in Basilicata and Potenza in particular, because having another athlete on the national team after Domenico Acerenza confirms that swimming in Basilicata has made great strides in recent years, despite having much smaller numbers than more prestigious regions like Lombardy, Lazio, or Veneto, which have hundreds of thousands of participants, while we reach a maximum of a thousand participants."

A few days ago, Flavio Mangiamele competed in the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, performing excellently in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, events in which he is expected to make his debut for the Italian national team. "We're keeping our fingers crossed for this international adventure for another athlete from Potenza," concludes Vincenzo Ostuni.