The Olympic champion does not hold back: «I always say everything to my face». The lunge against the ex-partner? “He made me feel bad with a post, now it’s my turn”
Parry and response. She said how she thinks in her own way, that is, directly as when she had to put the jabs in the foil, and she was criticized. First of all by Julio Velasco, one of the great names in Italian sport. But Elisa Di Francisca is still talking now.
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To explain the meaning of your speech, to add something and, of course, to respond to Velasco who judged harshly what you said about Arianna Errigo and the foil coach Andrea Cipressa, formerly her coach in blue. Let’s start right from here: how do you judge the opinion of Velasco, who even dubbed the London Olympian’s phrases as “disgusting and as an inappropriate frontal attack in the form and moment in which it was made?” Elisa replies straight away, but she doesn’t seem to be angry too much with the man who made our volleyball great and who also had roles in football. “I think it was a form of solidarity with my colleague, he has his reasons and he is there. Velasco was a coach – or still is, I don’t know – and he must have felt personally touched: I also imagine that in turn he had some athletes who said badly about him … Then he has a strong personality, he is one which says bread to bread and wine to wine, isn’t it? Here, then I understand. But who cares: if I have the opportunity to meet him, if one day we will know each other, we will talk about it “.
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On one thing, however, Elisa Di Francisca intends to point out. Indeed, it is the first thing that is keen to say: did not sponsor the return of Stefano Cerioni as ct of the foil. “It was also said that I expressed myself in this way for the story I had with him. Wrong, very wrong. This has nothing to do with it, they are two completely different aspects. I did not say what I said with the aim of “pushing” Stefano: among other things, when he went to Russia after London I had also sent him to hell … No, faced with the question “who would you put as commissioner technical? ”, I simply pointed out that with Cerioni at the helm of the foil we won a lot, including five Olympic medals in London, three of which gold. My idea is that a figure with greater personality is needed in the role, I said, among other things, that for me Cipressa was wrong to get Errigo to close the assault with France: I would have put Volpi last ».
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Yes, Arianna Errigo. She is the former teammate (up to London also stationed during retreats and races, ed) to have been at the center of Di Francisca’s intervention. «Let me be clear, I only spoke because I was asked for an opinion: it’s not that I woke up in the morning and decided to shoot zero…». Therefore? «So it was a response to what Arianna had said after a World Cup match in which we had lost in teams and I had been reassembled in the last match by the Russian Deriglazova. He had made me feel bad with that post in which he said that I had everything wrong, that I had taken an avalanche of jabs and that I shouldn’t have been the one to close. When he wrote that I was still on the team: so reading his sentences hurt me twice because the first one was angry with myself. Yes, that post hurt me: I was waiting for nothing but respond to her. Honestly, Arianna will not have felt at ease in the moments following the defeat against France: I then wanted to remind her of what she said to me. I did it differently because now I don’t know in the team anymore and I’m like a spectator who evaluates from the outside. I was waiting for the opportunity and moreover this is my opinion ».
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Elisa also rejects the accusation of being the only one who has not complimented her former companions for the bronze. “They also claimed that I was the only one not to cheer for the medal. That’s not true, I cheered for them and for… gold. They would have deserved it: they would have had to liquidate France and deal with the Russians. But when they finished third I said they had been good, including Erika Cipressa, the coach’s daughter: she was up to par in an objectively difficult situation. This is also true for his father: when you summon his daughter, you take on enormous responsibilities ». That’s all. Elisa has just celebrated the birthday of her first child, Ettore, and she wants to enjoy the holidays. What will happen now? Will he talk to anyone about what his world still remains, the planet of foil and fencing? “I do not know. Who wants to talk to me, call me.I always say everything to your face, I do not have any problem”.
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July 31, 2021 (change July 31, 2021 | 04:24)
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