The fencing champion retraces her career, from its origins in the Marche club: “Triccoli paved the way, now they copy us”
He was 6 years old when he entered the gym in Via Solazzi for the first time, hand in hand with his mother Enrica. There, under the orders of maestro Ezio Triccoli, his sister Nathalie, a foil player who already boasted an Italian student title, trained. It was 1980. “And how old is this young lady? What are you waiting for to leave her here?” Triccoli said to Signora Enrica. A few days later, the signature on the card sanctioned the first membership for the Jesi Scherma Club and the sporting birth of the most successful woman in Italian sport and world fencing: Valentina Vezzali. “Do you remember that day? Vague. I just know that without that insistent question from Triccoli, I wouldn’t have reached the top of the world.”
Valentina, what was special about Triccoli?
“For the Jesi Scherma Club he was everything. He founded it, then taught fencing and life to hundreds of kids. He was a wonderful man, an exceptional teacher, he was authoritative without being authoritarian. And on a technical level he was an innovator.”
“A second father. He taught me to respect the rules, he made me understand that fencing is like life: you always have to set a goal and once you have it in focus you then have to work hard to achieve it.”
Stefano Cerioni, Giovanna Trillini, Valentina Vezzali, Elisa Di Francisca, now Tommaso Marini and Alice Volpi, fresh world champions: what is the secret of the Jesi Scherma Club?
“Triccoli sowed well, he paved the way. Then his legacy was carried forward by other very good masters, starting with Giulio Tomassini, his right-hand man and then his heir, and by Cerioni himself. Jesi is a school that the world envies us and studies us. And successes generate enthusiasm, they make proselytes.”
Besides Triccoli and Tomassini, who was fundamental to your growth?
“Luigi Novelli, for the first psychomotor exercises. Doriana Pigliapoco, who warned me. And Annalisa Coltorti, who took care of my athletic training and more for years.”
How important is the spirit of emulation for you?
“I grew up inspired by a great champion like Giovanna Trillini, a model to imitate, an example of professionalism and dedication. Every day, in the gym, I tried to learn everything I could need to become like her and also to beat her” .
“I was 14 and she was 18. At first she gave me a hard time. When I came home from training, my spirits were at rock bottom. But dad comforted me. “Don’t worry, your time will come soon” he told me every time. And my moment came even earlier than expected, on April 22, 1994, in the final of the Italian championships.”
Speaking of Giovanna, Triccoli made a prophecy…
“One day the maestro said that his dream was to attend a Vezzali-Trillini Olympic final. So it was, at the Athens Games in 2004, but unfortunately he had already left us eight years earlier. But he had foreseen everything”.
September 15th – 8.55am
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