Despite the currents, the Olympic champion made the crossing. And she launched a photo contest
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Despite the currents, the 68-year-old Olympic champion Novella Calligaris swam across the Strait of Messina. Yet another undertaking conducted between Scylla and Charybdis. «It wasn’t a competition. We just had fun.” Novella Calligaris commented thus upon her arrival on the Calabrian coast of the Strait, the crossing completed on the day of the 50th anniversary of her world record in the 800m freestyle. Novella arrived on Porticello beach to also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Italian Olympic and Italian Athletes Association of which she is president. «Instead of celebrating my record 50 years ago in a normal way – said Novella Calligaris – I thought of dedicating this challenge to the ‘Azzurri d’Italia’ because the history of the Azzurri Olympians is also the history of Italy. And this challenge is my gift to the Azzurri of all sports and all eras who have honored Italy.”
The current took her a little further north than the expected landing point
The rising current of the Strait took it much further north than the initially planned landing point. “The weather? I don’t know but it doesn’t matter. We stopped, we laughed, we joked. It wasn’t a competition. But it’s okay anyway”, said Calligaris who dedicated the crossing to his brother Mauro, his parents and his coach Bubi Dennerlein. «I was helped by someone up there. In my opinion, my brother, who may have said, “the usual workaholic”, and Bubi, “he was just missing this one from the crossing”. And my mother would have said “the usual”».
It wasn’t a competition
The currents, said the Olympic champion, «we avoided them all. Of the time I spent. I don’t know yet. But it doesn’t matter – she replies to the applause and compliments of those who followed her on the boat and welcomed her upon her arrival in Calabria – We stopped, we laughed, we joked. It wasn’t a competition.”
A photography competition: shots of the blue shirt
Novella Calligaris also announced the opening of a call for a photography competition that will have the blue shirt as its symbol. «It will be – she said – a competition open to all. We ask participants to photograph a blue shirt, with any subject, from any sport. The best 40 photos, chosen by a commission made up of institutional representatives, athletes and photographers, will become part of an exhibition that will tour throughout Italy. We will start from the Zuccari Hall of the Senate.”
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