A moment with Pettinari

Elia Luini & Leonardo Pettinari of Italy win gold at the 2004 BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland

With the birth this month of his second child Italy’s lightweight wonder, Leonardo Pettinari, is in a contemplative mood and putting the bad memories of 2004 behind him.

Pettinari’s success has placed him on FISA’s recently compiled top 10 list of rowers still active in 2004 as determined by medal count and the last Olympic cycle. He has won World Championship medals in the lightweight men’s eight and pair but is best known for his success in the lightweight double which included straight World Championship wins from 2001 to 2003. Pettinari also holds the World Best time in the lightweight double, achieved in 2002 with partner Elia Luini.

In between caring for his new daughter, Alice, Pettinari found time to reflect on the last year and his current rowing status as he talked to FISA’s World Rowing journalist, Melissa Bray.

World Rowing: You (and Luini) were headed for the Athens Olympics as favourites after winning the World Championships for the last three years.  What happened in 2004?

Pettinari: Definitely 2004 was a very tiring year for me from all points of view. Yes, we started with an advantage but I wished it had never happened. Olympic training is very delicate and the psychological balance plays a very important role. This was unfavourable for us. The national technical staff who supervised us undervalued this very important point insisting, maybe too much, on taking care of just the physiological aspect.

World Rowing: I understand that you suffered from an injury. What happened?

Pettinari: Sometimes things start in a bad way and end in a worse one. We were having our last training sessions before the heats at the Athens Olympics. In the days before the heats, while we were practicing starts, I felt a great pain in my chest that kept me from breathing. The doctor examined me carefully and diagnosed a broken rib. At all costs I wanted go on and I competed in my heat, the repechage and the semi-final. But the pain was unbearable. I was examined by the doctor once again and he forbade me to take part in the competition. I ran the risk of having a hole in my lung.

World Rowing: Did you watch the final of your race?

Pettinari: Yes, I did.

World Rowing: What was going through your head?

Pettinari: I stayed just to look at the finals, even if I was deeply disillusioned and saddened, I love rowing and I did not want to miss such an important and beautiful event. I wanted to be in one of those lanes. I could feel the adrenalin flooding my body as if I was taking part in the final but I could not vent to my strength. This was the thing that made me suffer most of all.

World Rowing: Have you now recovered from your injury?

Pettinari: The fracture took 65 days to heal. Actually I am fine and everything is just a bad memory. I am training again and have taken part in some regattas. I train 10 to11 times per week on average, mainly in the single and for the last 20 days in a double as well. My personal coach is Antonio Baldacci who has trained me since 1997. I have an excellent relationship with him and we respect each other. I thank him very much for his patience and dedication.

World Rowing: What are your future plans for rowing?

Pettinari: I feel like rowing and competing again very much and I would like to breathe the Olympic atmosphere again.

World Rowing: Do you see Luini at all now?

Pettinari: Elia and I lost sight of each other. I am sorry for this. The end of our Olympic dream made our great friendship end.

Elia Luini and Leonardo Pettinari form Italy racing the heat at the Olympic Games in Athens

Pettinari started rowing when he was 12 years old and right from the beginning he fell in love with the feeling. “I liked the sensation of freedom it gives me and the contact with nature – as if I am part of it.”

Success came quickly for Pettinari. He won bronze the first time he competed at the World Rowing Championships in the lightweight eight as a 20-year-old. Pettinari followed this up the next year with gold in the lightweight pair and then went on to race at the 1996 Olympics in the lightweight four.

The following year Pettinari joined Michelangelo Crispi in the lightweight double and together they collected two silvers and a gold at the next three World Rowing Championships. Illness forced Crispi into early retirement leaving Pettinari to find another partner. Leading up to the Sydney Olympics Pettinari teamed up with Luini. The pairing proved successful and together they finished with silver.

Pettinari and Luini then spent the next three years completely dominating the double, setting a World Best Time and winning every race they entered up until the 2004 season.

Pettinari says the challenge of racing has kept him motivated in the sport. “I like putting myself to the test and regattas are the maximum expression of obtaining this.”

“Rowing is a very complex sport where strength, style, flexibility, timing, team spirit and sacrifice have to merge harmoniously. In my opinion to be successful we do not have to be content, we always have to look higher and higher and have the courage to set out our goals.”

When he is not training Pettinari spends time with his wife Katy, son Matteo and new baby Alice.

The World Rowing team values feedback.

Related stories
One more national title for Pettinari
Double Italian podium at CRASH-B’s

Other useful links
Top 10 rowers in 2004
World Best Times
World Cup Best Times