Tears Of Joy For Italy
The Age
Friday April 14, 2000
SYDNEY
These were not the pantomime smiles synchronised swimmers are accustomed to wearing, but genuine tears of relief. The swimmers from team Italia yesterday lost all sense of poolside decorum and celebrated after beating their European neighbors, Spain, to the eighth and final Olympic spot at the synchronised swimming qualifying open, which finished yesterday.
But as one Olympic dream materialised, another disintegrated. The Spanish team, looking on from the stands at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre, had fallen less than two points short.
It did not help that Australia, which was relegated to 13th in a field of 16 in the teams event, qualifies automatically as the Olympic host country.
``It was like an Olympic final," said the Italian coach, Laura Derenzin. ``The girls swam much better than they did yesterday ... I feel sorry for them (Spain) because they had a really good routine."
Spain, which has a young team in which the oldest swimmer is 20, did not qualify for the Atlanta Games, either, but Italy was placed sixth at the 1996 Olympics.
Said one of the Spanish swimmers, Gemma Mengual: ``I think that it's completely logical that Australia as host of the Olympic Games has the right to qualify, but of course it's disappointing that they have taken the place that we should have opportunity to qualify in."
The other teams to win Olympic qualification were Russia - gold medallists in both the team and duet events - Japan, Canada, France, China, and the United States.
One of Australia's leading synchronised swimmers, Irena Olevsky, said even though the team had failed to break into the top 12 - their highest world ranking was 12th after the 1998 world championships in Perth - they had proven this week that they were worthy of competing at the Olympics. They might also have won over sections of the Australian public, as bigger than anticipated crowds came to the partially completed Aquatic Centre to watch.
© 2000 The Age