It has not fallen well with the Italian olympic committee that Federica Pellegrini doesn’t want to server as flag bearer for Italy at the London 2012 Games, with the excuse that she doesn’t want to stand in a stadium for up to eight hours the night before her first race.
Gazzetta dello Sport reports the response of CONI president Gianni Petrucci thus: “I understand. But to carry the flag is not the Way of the Cross.” He adds a yet more bitter note when he suggests that the swimmer is not acting with maturity.
But the nice lady knows how to answer: “Whoever doesn’t understand that for me to stand up for eight hours the day before my Olympic race is impossible, isn’t blessed with very much intelligence, either that or they don’t know what standing up for eight hours feels like.”
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