A phone call with Susanna Marchesi after the return
by Laura Vigna
Exhausted : this is the word that best fits to describe Susanna's body and soul after the
Olympic experience. Although, she says, she is happy about her result.
"10th all around! This is a good result. But it was difficult to remain concentrated. We
were in the Olympic village since some weeks ago, to fit to the time zone.We did only
trainings and trainings, but everything was degenerating. We were tired, my coach was
getting more and more nervous and to incite us to do better she always told me bad
things. But I know it's normal - when we arrived to the finals we were much more relaxed.
I know it's unbelievable but it's true! At least,we were in the olympic final -
many good gymnasts remained out"
And I know Susanna is right: when I saw her on the Rai TV coverage, after her last routine
(ribbon) she started to cry on her coach's shoulder. Olga smiled to her, as to say
"Everything is over now, you can relax" but it couldn't help. The tension
Susy accumulated was too much. But not enough to discourage her. In fact, before the
Olympics she said she would have retired. But now...read what she said:
"What can I do about it? I can't live without gymnastics. I will take a period of vacation,
I won't stay in the National Center in Follonica for 2 or 3 months, but I will start
competing again for my team, Petrarca Arezzo, in the National Team Championships (serie A)".
What a HUGE joy for us to hear this words! We will see out favourite competing again.
No matter what results she will get: she will be good, anyway. Perhaps she will gain more
experience and do better than this olympic games. In Sydney, in fact, she performed
good but in the finals a mistake with the hoop
compromised her result (she dropped it during a catch).
In spite of all that, she remembered us. She sent me a postcard from Sydney where
she expressed her gratitude. What could I add? Such a sweet girl, always nice with
people supporting her, never unkind, always willing to sign an autograph, she understands
the value of little things ... the least you can do is to visit her
Olympic Photogallery !! Bye, your friends, Laura and Roberta :o)
