The Italian Olympic Committee announced, through its President Giovanni Malagò, that swimmer Federica Pellegrini is going to be Italy’s standard bearer at the opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Pellegrini, 27, won silver in the 200-metre freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics at the age of 16, and went on to win gold in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has four world championship golds and four silvers in her trophy cabinet.
Federica Pellegrinin stated that being Italy’s standard bearer at the Rio Olympics would be a good way to mark her glorious career. “It’s the crowning of years and years of career made up of great defeats and really great victories,” Pellegrini said on her Instagram profile with a post of her with the Italian flag.
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