Study and sports you can. In stride
“Walt Disney used to say ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.’ I would add that it’s not enough to dream of the Olympic Games, you have to work hard every day.” Eleonora Giorgi is a race walker and Olympic athlete who has competed in the London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020 Games. She holds Italian records in the 3-, 5, and 20-kilometer races, according to her social media posts. She also holds a degree in Business Economics and Management from Bocconi University. “I want people to know this, “ she explains, “because they often think that it’s impossible to go to university and be a professional athlete at the same time: but I am living proof that you can do it. It’s not easy, but it is possible.”
Born in Milan but raised in Cabiate, in the province of Como, Giorgi chose Economics after high school “because it seemed like the right degree to understand the world.” Alongside her studies, she pursued her lifelong passion: race walking. “I would train in the mornings and then try to attend all my classes, both to experience university life and because it was easier to pass the exams,” she adds. In fact, she explains, she needed to make a course correction right from the start. “In the first exam, which was mathematics, I got 14. I totally bombed! I panicked just enough, and then I changed my study method and finished the course with flying colors.”
She remembers all the support she got from her parents at that time. “They worked in Milan, so we would arrive in the city at 6:30 in the morning. I would train, then go to university and train again until the evening. They would wait for me and we would go back home together.” But the family’s decision to move to Milan became inevitable when Giorgi’s competitive career was really taking off. From 2012 to 2015 she collected a series of achievements: the London Olympics, gold at the Mediterranean Games, sundry Italian records. And in addition to all this, a Master’s in Sports Management and Marketing at Bicocca.
“The first Olympic Games were the best,” she says. “I was 20 years old and there wasn’t too much pressure on me. I knew I was there for the experience, and it was a great honor. I had the opportunity to compete with the best athletes in the world.” Rio 2016, on the other hand, was a bitter race. “I had broken record after record, so I knew I could win a medal, but during the race I was disqualified, so I had to withdraw.” Yet she didn’t give up, and she kept on training after knee surgery. Her goal was Tokyo 2020. But there, she was injured in the women’s 20K race. With singular grit and determination, Giorgi finished the race anyway. “My willpower was stronger than the pain in my leg,” she says.
Her recovery was slow, and the doctors advised her to take it easy, so she decided to focus on her family. “My partner is also an athlete [the Italian race walker Matteo Giupponi] and in 2022 we had our son, little Leone. Motherhood has been a challenging experience because I’m used to working with my body and I saw it changing. But despite all the sleepless nights and diapers, motherhood has also given me tenacity beyond belief: I want to train even more because now I have one more little fan,” she smiles. He will be cheering her on in Paris 2024.
