Swim queen Federica Pellegrini
said Tuesday she had "rarely received sexist insults, and never
from people so close, for a woman it's really brutal" after a
row over coaches with Italian long-distance swimmer Gregorio
Paltrinieri.
Pellegrini's contention that an award should have gone to her
coach and not Paltrinieri's unleashed a storm of mostly hostile
comment on social media.
Pellegrini, 29, is Italy's most successful woman swimmer.
She is the only swimmer − male or female − to have won seven
medals in a row in the same event (200 meters freestyle) at the
World Championships.
She is also the first female Olympic champion in the history
of Italian swimming, at Beijing in 2008, and the only Italian
swimmer to have set world records in more than one event.
Paltrinieri, 23, is the Olympic and world long course and
short course champion and three-times European long course
champion in the 1500 m freestyle event at the 2012, 2014 and
2016 European Championships, and two-times European long course
champion in the 800 m freestyle event.
Paltrinieri is the current 1500 m freestyle (short course)
world record holder.
He also holds the long course European records in the 800 m
and 1500 m freestyle events
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