Federica Pellegrini (Mirano, 5 August 1988) is a former Italian swimmer, freestyle specialist of which she is the reigning world record holder in the 200 m and European in the 400 m. Nicknamed the Divine by many, she is considered the greatest Italian swimmer in history as well as one of the longest-lived ever in her field.
He took part to five Olympic events: when, only sixteen, he won the silver medal in the 200m freestyle, becoming at the time the youngest Italian athlete to get on an individual Olympic podium. Four years later, at the Beijing Games, she won the gold medal in that same competition, giving Italy the first women’s Olympic success in the history of swimming . At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics she becomes the first swimmer in history to participate in 5 different Olympic finals of the same specialty.
At the 2007 World Cup in Melbourne she broke the first of 11 world records she had set in her career. She was world champion in the 200m and 400m freestyle both in 2009 and in 2011, becoming the first swimmer capable of winning the title consecutively in both distances in two different editions of the event. At the world championships she is also the most successful athlete in the same race thanks to the 4 golds, 3 silvers and 1 bronze medals won in eight different editions: from the Montreal 2005 to that of Gwangju 2019, in fact, she has always climbed the podium in the 200 m freestyle.
Swimming World Magazine elected her “Swimmer of the Year” in 2009 and “European Swimmer of the Year” in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In addition, for the successes achieved at the Olympic Games in 2004 and 2008 she was awarded the titles of Officer and later of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
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