There's more than swimming: Ginevra Taddeucci on criminology and renovations

Ginevra Taddeucci isn't exactly struggling to clock up the miles, both in and out of the water. After the recent World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, where she returned with a silver medal in four out of four races (10km, 5km, 3km sprint knockout, and relay), even better than her teammate Gregorio Paltrinieri, she took a well-deserved vacation, choosing Thailand. She's joined by the Italian long-distance swimmers Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Marcello Guidi, and her long-distance runner boyfriend Matteo Furlan. When the champion isn't swimming, she loves flying, traveling to the other side of the world, sometimes even on the road, to explore and learn, and not limit herself to the hit-and-run routine that all top-level athletes are often forced to follow. During her endless strokes—as well as her adventures, from the West Coast of America to Australia—she's accompanied by the hits she hums in her head or in the car, often by Pinguini Tattici Nucleari, her favorite band. A true Tuscan, or rather Florentine, after trying dance, she began swimming in Empoli at the age of nine, following in her cousin's footsteps and encouraged, first by her grandfather and then by her mother, to whom she dedicated the first medal she won at the world championships.

Swimming, which in the collective imagination is a complete and healthy sport, was recommended to her precisely because she had discovered she had celiac disease and had had developmental issues. Then, from a forced choice, love and a definitive spark ignited with long distance swimming when they brought her in 2012, before the European Junior Championships, to the Idroscalo in Milan. So she decided, of her own accord, to swim, managing not only her opponents but also the weather and extreme situations. And perhaps it was precisely by pushing herself that she was able, over the last two years, to perform at her best , first in the treacherous waters of the Seine in Paris and then on Palawan Beach, on the island of Sentosa, battling the heat.

At last year's Olympic Games, she qualified at the last minute, thanks to Arianna Bridi's fitness issues, earning an unexpected bronze medal in the 10km, where she finished as European and World runner-up. The bronze medal launched her into a new dimension, giving her confidence and a newfound self-confidence. Taddeucci, coached by Giovanni Pistelli, the longtime coach of former cross-country skier Rachele Bruni, deserves credit for bringing Italy back to the world championship podium in the 10km (her first individual world medal), 14 years after Martina Grimaldi in 2011. Gold may have been missed, but the haul is significant and significant, especially since it came in a post-Olympic year where she preferred to build something for her future. "I was hoping for a better placing," the Italian athlete, a member of the Fiamme Oro and Nuotatori Pistoiesi, told Italian national swimming federation (Federnuoto). "I needed to get my life back on track and build something outside of it. The last four years have been full of emotions and medals, but equally stressful. The pace at the front was unsustainable for me."

Besides sports, training, a few visits to Naples, her favorite city, and a few culinary indulgences—since she admitted in the past that she doesn't follow a particular diet and loves French fries—she graduated and is almost finished with a master's degree in criminology . Finally, she's also renovating a family farmhouse. She has put and is putting various pieces of her life back in order, and perhaps finding a new tactic in the water can only have calmed her down. After that Olympic bronze, she won silver at this year's European Championships in the 10km and gold in the 5km, learning not to try to break away or over-sprint, but to think carefully and manage her energy and strokes. She tried to banish her demons, even though she sometimes acknowledged having a negative attitude and having to swim against the current, against fears and various insecurities. After the 2024 World Championships in Doha, where she finished in 22nd place, she considered quitting to finally try to be happy. “I kept swimming, head down,” she wrote on Instagram at the end of 2024. “So many tears in those goggles, sometimes visible, sometimes not. Alone I wouldn't have continued another day after February 3rd.” She found the support of her family, her boyfriend, and her coach, and she started again, surpassing and surprising others, including herself, first in Paris and then in Singapore.

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