The Italian athlete added two world medals to her Olympic one in Paris: “They were different. On a mental level the 10,000m was more difficult, in terms of energy remaining the 5,000m”
“If they had told me five years ago that I would be like this I would have said it wasn’t possible. Now I look back and think about how much I’ve grown: it makes me almost more emotional than seeing a medal again. I’m growing, I’m achieving something that until a few years ago seemed impossible.” Nadia Battocletti’s head is as big as her engine, the one that led her to add the world medals in 10,000 (silver) and 5,000 (bronze) to the Paris Olympic medal. In his Trento (“This is home for me”), guest of the Sports Festival in a live edition of “Another podcast”, which thus inaugurated his second season, he told his secrets and his next goals, from the European cross country championships in Portugal in December in which he wants to do well at the Los Angeles Olympics which “are not an obsession but which I am already thinking about”.
GROWTH
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Nadia’s idea is to continue to grow. There are the medals from the Tokyo World Championships, the ones she keeps in the bank together with the one from Paris, to remind her not only of how far she has come, but also of how much she is getting closer to those in front of her. “No one is unbeatable, the gap is closing because I am growing and building a lot – says Nadia, overwhelmed by the affection of the Philharmonic Hall, also full of fans from her fan club -. I like the idea of improving myself as an athlete but also as a person”. She also did it at the World Championships, from which she returned with the two medals that she brought into the room to remember him. “They were two different medals – he remembers -. Different medals. In the 10,000 I knew that they didn’t want me on the last lap and they would have an immediately tough race. There were whistles inside the stadium and after a few laps I started to hear a whistle: it was a signal to increase the pace and attack me. On a mental level, the 10,000 were more difficult, but the most tiring one in terms of energy remaining was the one in the 5,000. I tried to take an extra step, trying to stay in front straight away.”
BOX
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The item Nadia brings in the box, one of the features of “Another Podcast,” is her shoes. And from here too it emerges how much Battocletti’s head is as much his secret as his legs. “These shoes were made for me, especially for the World Cup,” he says. linked to technology, even if in athletics the performance is purely human”.
NADIA
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Battocletti’s essence lies above all in his family, in the parents he always gets excited about talking about and who he calls “his safe haven, the ones who if I win we celebrate together and if it goes badly I know they’ll take me anyway. I have such a special relationship with my mother that they often mistake us for sisters”. And it is in her land, in that Trentino where “when I see the road sign I immediately feel at home. Resistance, effectiveness in running, are things I have had since I was a child – she says -. In terms of character, desire and will to not give up are part of me. And also having to sacrifice everything to achieve certain goals”. Nadia is also a student, and puts the same determination into her pursuit of a degree in Building Engineering and Architecture as she does on the track. The one that led her to historic medals, to becoming one of the symbols of Italian athletics. And of that Trentino that he loves so much and that has contributed to making it a symbol.
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