Untitled Document

FEDERICA

tells her story

Everything started on a Sunday, 15 years ago, when my parents decided to try something different and brought me to the ice rink Mezzaluna in Menta, to try skating.
I can now say that it was the best Sunday of my childhood, but I remember that I was not really happy that day... I had my cartoons to watch, my friends to play with....
"Ice skating" I said, "I can't do that, and an ice rink is cold!"... but my parents managed to convince me anyway and now I can only thank them for this.

A month later, I was already in a class full of kids who wanted, like me, to learn skating... many girls but also a lot of boys, all happy to be making new friends and spending this hour twice a week, having fun.
When I started the learn-to-skate classes I had very, very long hair, gathered in a long braid that got sometimes pulled by the little boy with whom I had immediately started to skate in pair, as at the Mezzaluna there were only dance teachers and so my choice of discipline was limited: at first I was not really happy because I had to hold hands with this little boy, but now I can say that ice dancing is all my life in sports.

Years passed by very quickly absorbed by school and skating, with good and bad moments, but surely lots and lots of satisfactions. I skated for 10 years with Luciano Milo, and with him I obtained lots of victories at Junior level - these were very hard years, where I was growing up and it was difficult sometimes to concile skating, studying and friends; it required a lot of effort, but I knew where I wanted to arrive and I was determined to do everything I could, even sacrificing a bit of my private life.

Unfortunately after 10 years together I had to part ways with Luciano Milo, we were two very different persons, ffriends and enemies at the same time, and not ready to face together the senior category - we had started in it, but it all came to a very bad conclusion at the World Championships in Nice, in 2000.
It was the time when we also had to decide to move to Milan, and we were not fit to face that move together, when our coaches had received a job offer to keep coaching in that city, and wanted us to go with them.

With thousand of doubts and some certainties, we arrived in Milan anyway. Massi and I were the only ones to accept this change to try this new experience.
We had packed our bags, said good-bye to our families and friends, and we were ready to follow our athletes' dreams...
Actually in our first year here we never skated together. I had started to skate with a French guy who had to go back to Lyon quite soon after, while Massi was skating with an American girl (he will tell you about her)... when I found myself alone my situation was getting bad, because of course my parents wanted me to go back home, but I was too much in love with skating to quit, and my stubborn-ess, as my mum says, won.

After 6 months, at the beginning of February I found myself trying out with Massi. I remember that day as if it was just yesterday: our coaches had had both of us come to the rink with some excuses, and neither of us really understood what was happening untill we met on the ice... for me, it was a dream come true, skating with Massi, a marvellous guy, technically great and beautiful... my partner, that I am sure lots of girls would like to have.

At that point we found ourselves in a peculiar situation, as the next Olympics were coming up and we wanted to go... We were ready to work hard to reach this goal, the dream of every athlete. The rest of the story is known... it was a very demanding season for us, we had been skating together for a few month only but we had always been on the same wavelenght, and with our determination and the help of all our coaches and our families we managed to place second at the National Championships and thus gained the second spot for the Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The next year we became the first Italian dance couple, after Barbara and Maurizio's retirement, and we were surely not lacking motivation: we wanted (and we still want) to show the world that we are here, fighting for our ranking, and ready for our first great satisfactions.

Our private life changed to follow our skating: we have always lived together, first in San Donato, then in Sesto San Giovanni, and this surely helped us to grow up quickly, taking our responsibilities, managing our home... being far away from our parents was not easy, but we're here... and we're not going to quit!

Back to our life on the ice, after those Olympics we had four years to make our way up the rankings, trying to bring our personality out on the ice, with the main goal of giving emotions to the public. Of course there were also lots of not so beautiful moments that we had to learn to live with, but this is part of the sport as well... Two years ago we went through a "little" change, we quit our former coaches and passed under the guidance of Roberto Pelizzola and Paola Mezzadri, living a completely different reality on the ice... we litterally started back from the beginning, from the forward stroking! It was hard and difficult, we changed a bit our skating style and we had to find a compromise between technique and passion.

We are going to continue on this road, with our determination and the support of everyone that's around us - technicians and not - and above all with the love of all the guys who follow us, and whom we want to give a special thank-you for all the things that they've done and still do for us... A special kiss goes to our little Frank, the mascot who follows us everywhere, it's a gift we've been given and we are really attached to it... Thank you to everyone!!

And if you will allow me, "in that place that doesn't exist" you are there, my little lord...

and now... some photos...


	my first birthday

I already had blue eyes		a bath

on a high chair	by the sea	with my cousin Manuela

home in Roma	five years old	Carnevale

in Rimini with my brother Marco	Christmas	home in Roma

Alleghe	Alleghe	Youth Games, in Asiago, the first victory with Milo

in Ussita	an UISP competition	in Roccaraso

UISP European Cup final	at the Mezzaluna in Mentana	with Luciano Milo

	Italian Cup