C‘It is a precise moment for every swimmer in which time stops counting and begins to count only his breath. This is what comes after the effort, when the mind threatens to collapse before the body. Simona Quadarella knows him well. He has already faced him between 2023 and 2024, first at the Fukuoka World Championship, where he ended up far from the podium and then to the Paris Olympics, for a breath outside the podium. Today, however, In the swimming pool of the Singapore World Cup, there was another silence. Not that of solitude, but the one preceding the applause. World silver. New European record in the 1500 freestyle: 15 minutes, 31 seconds and 79 cents.
Simona Quadarella, silver in the 1500 freestyle at the Singapore World Cup
Before today There were those who still called her “the girlfriend of the middlefund», As if it were just a specialist. In fact, Simona Quadarella is much more. Is one of the few Italian athletes who he was able to hold the pressure of the comparison With a living myth like Katie Ledecky. And today she came close to her as never before. “I didn’t think I went so strong,” he said. But the point is that sometimes you underestimate ourselves, because you look at the past too closely.
The rebirth: “The medal of change”
After the 2019 world gold in Gwangju and the European titles, Quadarella seemed to be destined for a straight career like a line of lane. Instead, Between 2023 and 2024, something broke out. Paris hurt her. Fourth in the 800, fourth in the 1500s. The touched podium, the water that weighs, the breath that is missing. It is in those days that he probably decided to change. Not the dream, but the trajectory. He left his historic coach, Christian Minotti. A farewell that is not easy. And chose Gianluca Belfiore, Looking for a new way of training And, perhaps, even a new way of swimming. This time not against time, but with your time.
In Singapore, Simona Quadarella won world silver in the 1500 freestyle behind Katie Ledecky (Getty)
A race to study. A heart to manage
Singapore’s masterpiece is not only in the time trial, in fact. It is in the strategy. While the Australian Lani Pallister started in rocket to keep the rhythm of Ledecky, Quadarella has chosen to wait. He let the others vent. He studied. He breathed. And when tiredness began to make selection, she changed marches. No strength attack. But a declaration of awareness.
The silver of Simona Quadarella in Singapore
“It’s the medal of change,” he whispered. As if silver was only the symbol of something bigger. And that’s how it is. Why Simona Quadarella today is not just a strong swimmer. He is an athlete who has learned to manage pressure, expectations and, herself. In this season he found a new serenity, which she herself calls “a resource”. And he recognized that the disappointments serve, but only if he works on it. “They made me grow,” he said.
Towards the Los Angeles games
Now another appointment awaits it: the 800 freestyle. But she is not in a hurry. She returned to love what she does. “The Olympics? We will think about it, “he said with a disarming smile. He knows that Los Angeles is far away, but that the journey has already begun. In the meantime, he dedicates this feat to the mother. A simple gesture, such as the style that has always distinguished it: never screamed, always decided.