Battocletti, our middle-distance queen, isn’t one to settle for less

At the 2024 European Championships in Rome, Nadia Battocletti achieved the feat of winning gold in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. This impressive performance was crowned by an Italian record and, a few months later, by an Olympic silver medallion in the 10,000 metres in Paris, finishing second only to the Kenyan Beatrice Chebet. The Fiamme Azzurre athlete takes her place on the starting line at the European Championships in Birmingham fresh from her Italian titles just won in Florence (in the 5,000 and 1,500 metres) and with the anticipation that surrounds the queens of middle-distance running. “I feel good, I’ve worked hard and I’m confident,” she tells Il Foglio Sportivo.

Nadia is one of the best-known figures in Italian athletics: tenacious, never over the top, and well aware that at this level nothing can be taken for granted. “Every race has its own story,” she adds, “but I want to give it my all right up to the very last lap. In these competitions, you also need experience, the ability to keep a clear head when the race gets messy, and the moment when you choose to change pace. I’ll find out the rest on the track.”

Those 400 metres on the tartan track are where she spends her days, filled with training, physiotherapy, nutrition and recovery. “Life as a competitive athlete is complex,” continues the Italian athlete, “and there are aspects, such as rest, that few people talk about. Even recovery requires a methodical approach, attention and attention to detail. It takes next to nothing to ‘fall off the wagon’.” This happened to Nadia at the Golden Gala last June in Rome, where a flu-like illness and other mysterious circumstances forced her into 13th place. “You learn from setbacks. I would have expected better given the effort I’d put in over the previous months. Sport at this level is like that: you end up with performances you didn’t think you were capable of. For better or for worse.”

Athletics, however, is not the only passion in the life of this young woman from Cles, the main town of the Val di Non. Few people know that, alongside her sporting career, she is studying to become an architect. “I’m enrolled on the degree course in construction engineering and architecture, and it’s a genuine passion, not just a fallback plan. I’m fascinated by the way spaces are designed with the people who will live in them in mind, and I’m very interested in the issue of sustainability. I find that architecture has more in common with athletics than it might seem: in both, you work for a long time on something that you’ll only see at the very end. “I’d like to give back what sport is teaching me,” says Battocletti, “discipline, dealing with difficulties, how to pick yourself up again, and above all, to be of help to younger people – those who think they don’t have what it takes to get anywhere. Sport is one of the few areas where you can still prove the opposite.”

Born in 2000, she has a unique insight into the world of young people, clearly understanding their struggles, aspirations and relationship with a world that isn’t always easy to navigate. “The younger generations are often labelled and generalised about,” continues the middle-distance runner. “We’ve grown up in a different era, with social media and far more opportunities ahead of us: this can create distractions, but it doesn’t take away the desire to work hard. I know lots of young people who study, work and train at a high level. I myself am about to complete my university degree whilst preparing for a European Championship, and that’s not something you can do without making sacrifices. Perhaps we express our ambitions in a different way and seek a better balance between our private lives and our work. What sport has taught me is that nothing comes without perseverance. And that sacrifices are made willingly when you find something you truly believe in.”

With the European Championships in Birmingham just a few days away, Nadia is among the favourites for the title, which she will have to defend against challenges from the Dutch athlete Maureen Koster and the French athlete Sarah Madeleine. There were also rumours of her possibly competing in the 1,500 metres, but in the end the Italian will line up for the 5,000 and 10,000 metres (on Tuesday 11th and Friday 14th, in the evening sessions), ready to write another historic chapter for Italian athletics, a sport that is growing more rapidly in Italy than is generally realised. “Football dominates the scene, and tennis is enjoying an extraordinary moment thanks to the results of Sinner, Musetti and Berrettini: that’s only right – victories attract attention and bring new people to the sport.” Italian athletics is no less impressive. Jacobs, Tamberi, Simonelli, Furlani and Diaz are proving their worth with impressive performances that bode well for the future. “In recent years, athletics has been achieving impressive results,” continues Battocletti, “and interest is growing. Successes are needed, of course, but so are investment, facilities and promotion in schools. Athletics has an advantage that other sports don’t have: at its core are running, jumping and throwing – movements that anyone can do. We just need to make it feel more accessible.”