by Anna Gandolfi
The canoe champion is 55 years old and lives in Lecco: «I had a heart attack during a bike race, I was annoyed to say that I was sick and I didn’t call for help immediately». Politics? «I had a League membership card, but it expired». The nude photo on the cover: «My wife and the finance department didn’t take it well»
We are republishing Anna Gandolfi’s interview with Antonio Rossi, published in May, one of the most appreciated by our readers in 2024.
«It bothered me to say that I wasn’t well. Give up a race? I? I’m calling: I have a puncture, come and get me calmly. A scooter arrived but I couldn’t get on it.”
And that day his life changed.
«Before I felt indestructible, I wasn’t afraid of hard training. Now I panic if I cut myself and see the blood that doesn’t stop due to the anticoagulants. I still take the medicine, almost three years have passed, I’m fine but I’ve changed my approach: I know that it only takes a moment to erase everything, for your body to give up on you.”
Even if your name is Antonio Rossi, you are a multi-medal canoe champion – three world golds, one European, five Olympics with three golds, one silver and one bronze – and you have made sport the cornerstone of your existence.
That day – Sunday 18 July 2021 – Rossi was not paddling but pedaling for the Granfondo Pinarello in Conegliano.
«I didn’t want to let myself be surpassed, furthermore it didn’t seem right to me to cause worries for Fausto Pinarello, who had lost his brother due to an illness. I repeated: I’ll recover, I’m here on the wall, it’s nothing. But it didn’t pass. I had done a climb and felt nauseous, I assumed it was congestion, then the tingling started. Meanwhile the others were whizzing past me: is everything okay? Yes, good. It may have been the case but I, who never save the emergency number at races, in that case had it memorized on my cell phone. After the tire change arrived, with the scooter I couldn’t get on, the alert went off. Test on site and verdict: you’re not moving, you’re having a heart attack.”
Have you thought about dying?
«Not at that moment. Afterwards, a doctor friend said that it went well for me: the blood clot – that’s what it was – could have reached my head.”
Rossi was born on 19 December 1968, he is 56 years old. Born in Lecco, today his life is in management and he collaborates with the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Committee. After sport he approached politics «but always as a civic and technical person. I had a League membership card as a supporter, but it has expired.”
In the Region he was councilor and undersecretary with Roberto Maroni and Attilio Fontana, therefore civic but centre-right.
«A part of my fans, who were previously transversal, have abandoned me. Jokes aside: today I am no longer in the Council, not even in the Municipality of Lecco, and I love what I do very much. I am happy with the previous experience and I don’t regret anything.”
The name of a politician he respects, on both sides.
«We remain in the Region: Attilio Fontana, president who knows how to face the task with the pragmatism of a mayor; Fabio Pizzul of the Democratic Party offered constructive opposition.”
Let’s go back to sports. How did you get started with canoeing?
«I am the youngest of five children, my sisters swam with the Canottieri Lecco. My brother had also started canoeing and was having fun. I tried and never stopped. Here: I really was one pippa».
Didn’t he win?
«I was born in December, I found older boys competing. Finally I left too: I dreamed of the blue shirt, I wouldn’t have imagined getting where I got.”
He once said: “I know I have ruined many athletes, perhaps more than I have succeeded in inspiring.”
«I wrote it in an article and it must be put into context. I said that I had always been convinced that I didn’t have much physical talent and therefore that the only way to stand out was to work harder than others.”
At least 15% more, quantify this too.
«It wasn’t a figure of speech, it was a mathematical calculation linked to the results. When I won my first Italian title I was still in high school and my life was not entirely dedicated to sport. Then I realized I had to go further. I included 10 kilometers of swimming in my training: dry, every Wednesday morning at 8. It took me forever to do them and I got to the end when I didn’t even know where I was. I say that I ruined many athletes because I raised the bar and when, with the results, I became a reference, suddenly the coaches wanted to impose the same routine on their kids.”
Seen today, is it too much?
«They are techniques, everyone must do what they feel. Those ten kilometers perhaps didn’t do much good but they made me feel good in my head. To study my heart rate I used graph paper: a dot every 5 seconds for workouts lasting an hour and a half. I faxed the graphs to the coach. It seems incredible now and yet these are things that don’t weigh on you if you have big plans.”
In 2000, however, he disappeared before the Olympics. What had happened?
«On 24 December 1999 my father Maurizio passed away, the birth of Angelica, my first daughter, was expected in March. I, who had always seen sport as entertainment and not as work, began to think about stopping, telling myself to get my head straight.”
In short, looking for a permanent job.
“More or less. I was in the Guardia di Finanza, I could have tried a competition. I attended scientific high school and studied economics and business. I wanted to give my family more certainties.”
How did it go?
«My family, Finance and the team helped me. They gave me time to think. The Olympics in Sydney were in October, I resumed in March. Therefore, unfortunately, I wasn’t there when my daughter Angelica was born: I was in Seville training.”
Is it true that you had a mental coach?
«As a forty-year-old I found myself preparing for K4 in Beijing with athletes of different generations from mine: they were 30 years old (Franco Benedini and Luca Piemonte), the youngest 23 (Alberto Ricchetti). It was necessary to amalgamate characters, ambitions and problems on a single boat. With psychotherapy we succeeded. Of course: I was a forty-year-old with two small children, they wanted to go dancing after the competitions.”
Rossi, didn’t he feel old?
«I was the one with experience».
His son Riccardo Jury also canoed.
«After his fourth year of high school abroad he preferred to dedicate himself to something else. I didn’t like them constantly comparing him to me: they took some of the fun out of it.”
You chose Jury as a middle name for your son in honor of a friend, is that true?
«Jury Chechi. He’s a brother. He was there at the Gran Fondo in Conegliano, among the first ones I looked for after realizing that I was really sick. He called my wife Lucia. Bad moments and good moments: we experienced everything together.”
When did you meet?
«In 1996. Not at the Olympic Village, as you might think, but at the Miss Italy competition: he was the president of the jury and I was a juror».
An anecdote of Rossi and Chechi together.
«There are so many, let me think…»
In the background we hear Rossi’s wife suggesting something.
“No, I can’t say the one about the trolley: I’m a respectable person.”
They both laugh. («Ah, the one about the trolley didn’t want to tell you? So I’ll tell you about it” – read the interview with Jury Chechi)
So?
New consultation.
«In 2004, for Telethon, we spent a few days in New York and had a lot of fun, while our respective companions were waiting for us at home. The agreement was to leave for Corvara all together for the holidays. Once there, Jury and I disappeared again: out and about until four in the morning, getting no sleep. I think that was one of the times I came closest to divorcing my wife.”
Lucia Micheli, a canoeist like her. You met very young. How did you manage his reputation as the “most handsome flag bearer of the Olympics”?
They laugh again.
«I wasn’t the most beautiful, it was just a beauty that came from enthusiasm. However, no problem.”
You also did a bit of television.
“Something. I was the sportsman, the host. It went well because no one was competing.”
But is it true that for the Italian League for the fight against cancer he stripped and covered himself in chocolate?
«It was a charity chocolate sale. Nothing scandalous: photos only of the bust. Embarrassingly, I only have one, the one with the paddle…”.
You remind us about the paddle thing.
«It was a report for a famous magazine, in 2000. I enter the studio and see the photos of Massimiliano (Rosolino, ndr) only with headphones. I exclaim: but no! “My” Financial Police would never approve. They showed other images of athletes: if they do it, why not you? Okay. But then the photo dressed only in the paddle ended up on the cover and an uproar happened: the Gdf wasn’t happy and neither was my wife. Let’s say that since then I have been very, very careful…”.
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December 20, 2024
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