Carlo Mornati: “If I had won the games today I would be a lawyer”

Carlo Mornati twenty years ago in Tampere, in Finland, he led the 4 without senior to the world gold bis. Before becoming Secretary General of the Coni, he was one of the biggest reversal. His boat revived the epic of 4 without Olympian 1948 by Giuseppe Moioli, Lecco as Mornati. With the boat of Mornati the rowing was no longer just that of the abbagnale.

Mornati, it all began in Indianapolis 1994.

“That world gold was unexpected, it was the first period of the national team directed by Giuseppe La Mura, a histrionic character, a genius, a revolutionary. He told us instead that he expected that triumph. He had sensed it from the feedback in training. At the beginning there were Molea, Leonardo, Dei Rossi, then I was taking over Carcioncini. Sacrifying his son Robert.

Was that boat also a technical model?

“We dominated 3 years in a row, we only missed a race: the final of the Atlanta games. In 1996 he turned everything wrong, we reached discharges, not at the peak of the form. Unprepared for an Olympic experience: every day we had to do 90 km at 5 in the morning. Despite everything we played it, we won the batteries, up to 1700 meters we stayed in the head, as soon as he overtook the Australia. We were used to making us overtake. ”

He didn’t even win the Olympiad in Sydney.

“In 2000 Great Britain in order to win in 4 without Mise Redgrave, Pinsent. We lost gold for cents, after 2000 meters, sometimes you need a little luck. They rewarded us for silver Samaranch and Anna of England. Redgrave went for the fifth gold and there was a crazy visibility on our race. They abolished the” 2 and 4 with “and they were changing the brothers. In Barcelona they had beaten the abbagnale.

“If I had won the gold instead of the silver I would have withdrawn, I would have left the sport immediately and today I would be a lawyer in a study in Lecco. Instead I have been in sport for 40 years. I would have done the same already 4 years earlier. It has always been a run -up to win”.

It was no longer just the rowing of the brothers.

“Giampiero Galeazzi was our luck, he gave us great visibility with his telechronache, our races had become compelling and popular, for us it was like winning the 400 floors of athletics. We had become the peak boat par excellence”.

And she was the leader.

“It was an alchemy. Then I ended up in 8 but from 2000 to 2008, 3 silver in a row after 30 years that did not take medals, it was epochal. We also had a geographical amalgam. There was of the Rossi, a very strong Trieste, there was the Neapolitan flair of Leonardo and Molea, I was the pragmatic. I was convinced that I had already stopped after Atlanta and a degree at 23 years of age, I would not have imagined to row up to 34 years “.

Why did he go to Australia?

“I wanted to be the master abroad, I said no to Oxford and Cambridge who made me a ruthless court. At Sydney they welcomed me as a hero. But a hero who early in the morning put the boat on his shoulder and went to train. In Australia the rowing is a religion. The system is different there. I had to arrange myself: there is a different approach to the club. Followed, there is based on the individual organization.

Unforgettable experiences?

“Hard years, of tears and sweat, experienced with pride, aware of making a tiring sport”.

“I grew up in the lake, in Mandello rowing was like football in Brazil”.

“He was the person who most affected my life of athlete, I grew up with him in symbiosis for many years. It was an example and his silences were worth more than many words, for weeks we were not speaking.”

With the wall, however, there were controversy: they contested stress and tensions.

“The reason was in the middle, with the doctor we confronted each other, before Athens we talked that we were training too little …”.

“In my opinion, he was wrong as DT when he demanded a continuous evolution, he demanded that we always improve. I said to him” it is a miracle if after 2 worlds we win the third “, but he put to the test of our physical resistance. In fact, in Atlanta we arrived cooked. We had no distractions as today”.

Doesn’t it really regret?

“If I had won the Olympic gold I would not be here, but sport is my holy grail. I am already at the 14th Olympics: I must almost thank that 1996 defeat”.

“Niccolò is 16 years old and plays football, Bianca has 14 and plays volleyball. A great pride is also my brother Nicolò younger than 8 years old, we competed in 6 world championships and 3 times we took silver together. It was my longest -lived boat companion”.

Will he be president of Coni one day?

“Today I am happily the secretary: Coni is a strong and great institution that goes beyond people, everyone leaves his imprint. With Malagò they were years of great successes, I am convinced that it will also be with Buonfiglio, on the wave of an overall illuminating organization”.