Quadarella’s ‘venom’ is not over yet. “He must be in the running”

When Simona Quadarella starts swimming, at least in Europe, no one can beat her. Four hundred, eight hundred, one thousand and five: it makes no difference to her. They’re always gold medals. The important thing is to do it in the pool. To see the bottom. Because in the sea, no. Fear takes over, but that’s another story. Simona discovered that to swim faster she had to lift a weight off her shoulders. Not add one. “After Paris, I felt so awful that I said: that’s it, I don’t want to feel like this any more. I started expecting less of myself. And this, paradoxically, helped me much more.” It is perhaps here that the new sporting life truly begins for a young woman who has spent her days in the pool for almost twenty years, with alarm clocks going off far too early, kilometres, stopwatches and medals. A life in which it seemed natural to always demand a little more of herself and yet, at a certain point, the turning point came from the opposite direction.

She has changed her coach, but above all she has changed her approach to swimming. “After the Olympics, I also decided to knuckle down with my university studies. I told myself: I want to graduate before the next Games. And I did it.” She thought that studying might take something away from her. “Instead, it was the year I performed best in swimming. I realised that to feel good, I need a balance, even by doing other things.” No mental coach: “I did it all on my own.”

To understand Quadarella, perhaps we need to start here. With the fact that her talent has never merely been about outlasting the others over 800 or 1,500 metres, but about enduring over the years. “I’ve been swimming competitively for practically twenty years.” And yet, the 6.30 am alarm hasn’t become any more pleasant. “It’s not that I like getting up early and getting into the water in the morning. But you know that to achieve a goal, you have to make that sacrifice.”

This is another reason why disappointments weigh more heavily than training sessions. “After a defeat, getting back in the water is harder. You ask yourself: why am I doing this? All these sacrifices – for what?” When things go well, however, even the day after seems less tough. “I enjoy my victories and celebrate them. But there are times when you have to get back in the water the very next day. That’s just how it is.”

For years they called her ‘Veleno’ (Poison). A nickname that seems less fitting for the Quadarella of today – more serene, more measured, apparently less fierce. Apparently. ‘The poison is still there. It’s what you use in a race, and it has to be there.’ It’s just that now she’s learnt to keep it in the right place.

Not least because, at the age of twenty-seven, she has realised something that the world of swimming tends to forget all too quickly: she isn’t old. “I thought I wasn’t young enough for this sport anymore, but that’s not the case. Perhaps experience helps a great deal.” Her body has changed, “perhaps recovery times are a little different”, but when she gets into the water “I don’t feel much difference compared to ten years ago”. Quite the contrary. She continues to improve.

And it is precisely this, today, that perhaps gives her more satisfaction than the medals. “Realising that I can still improve is what helps me the most.” Among the memories she cherishes most, she mentions “the 1500 in Singapore in 2025, the last 400, the first World Championships in 2019 and the Olympic bronze”. She doesn’t rank them all equally, but neither does she dwell on the past. After all, the stopwatch has the advantage of not knowing how old you are.

Then there’s Katie Ledecky, the wall that’s been standing in her way for what feels like an age. “Of course I’d love to beat her. But I try to be realistic: I don’t think about beating her. If it happens, great.” It’s an almost perfect way of describing her new approach: her ambition remains enormous, her obsession a little less so.

Quadarella has always been a water baby. She first went into the water when she was three or four months old. “I can’t remember it, but I’ve got the photos.” Her parents simply wanted her to learn to swim. “It was a safety issue. They certainly didn’t think I’d get to this point.” She, on the other hand, never had any major doubts as she grew up. “I liked swimming; I enjoyed it. My sister swam too, and I wanted to do a bit of what she was doing.” A brief foray into artistic gymnastics didn’t last long. “I was a lively little girl; I used to do handstands and cartwheels. My mum took me along to have a go, but I didn’t like it.” The long-distance events came later. “When I was fourteen or fifteen, those were the distances I was best at. I always say that it’s not the athlete who chooses the distance: it’s the distance that chooses the athlete.” Her relationship with the sea, however, is far less romantic. Gregorio Paltrinieri has added open-water swimming to his pool training, but she hasn’t. “It’s never appealed to me. I need to be able to see the bottom. Besides, it is a contact sport, much more physical. I prefer my own lane.” It is not merely a matter of preference. “It is a fear. If I cannot see the bottom, I begin to imagine worst-case scenarios. Like sharks.” Her coach has tried to persuade her. “He suggested it to me. I have always been sceptical. But never say never.”

For her, swimming remains an individual sport only to a certain extent. “The team is important in any sport. Having teammates to joke around with whilst you’re training lightens the load. I have a heavy workload.” And the young people joining the national team today are also a boon to those who’ve been there for ages. “We can give them our experience, but they give us back that carefree spirit we had when we were younger.”

Outside the pool, meanwhile, he has decided to pave the way for a different life, though he doesn’t yet know what form it will take. His degree in digital communication is a step in that direction. “I’d like to have more opportunities when I stop. When you have a choice, you feel more at ease and don’t have to settle for less. I’m keeping as many options open as possible so that I’ll be in a position to decide in the future.”

Los Angeles, of course, is on the cards. But here too, Quadarella avoids making definitive statements. “It’s the next big milestone, but there’s more in between.” She doesn’t say whether it might be her last Olympics. “We’ll see. I don’t want to set myself limits that are too strict.” And as for why Italian women so often win so much, she has an answer she makes no attempt to sugar-coat: “We’re definitely hungrier. Women, in any field, sometimes have to have more drive; they have to work harder to achieve their goals. And this happens in sport too.” The swimming pool has taken up almost her entire life. For the future, she has a simple yet incredibly complex wish: “To find something that can satisfy me as much as swimming does. It’ll be very difficult.” For now, there’s no need to look for it. There’s still swimming to be done.