In Photos

By Sebastiano Groeteke | Photoreporter

Ten participants, two silver medals: these are the accomplishments of athletes representing Italy at the 2024 Paris Olympics from Frascati Scherma, a fencing club located around the Castelli Romani on the hilltops overlooking the city of Rome.

The club hasn’t only been successfully represented in Paris, but also at past Olympics through multiple gold, silver, and bronze medalists. This winning tradition of Frascati Scherma dates back to 1976, when Stefano Simoncelli won Frascati Scherma’s first Olympic silver medal, at the Montreal Olympics. 

Today, almost 50 years later, the “Palestra Simoncelli”, named in his memory, is the training ground for athletes that aspire to replicate the club’s past success and to realize the Olympic dream.

But, aside from Italian fencers, Frascati Scherma has welcomed more international athletes during recent years, who, inspired by the club’s success, have chosen to join their training in the small Italian city, to take advantage of the strong, competitive environment and to learn from the Italian fencing tradition.

As a result, even at the past Olympics four of the 10 qualified athletes representing Frascati were foreigners. Especially young aspiring athletes, who are still at the initial stages of their fencing career, but who have made the decision to move to Frascati by themselves, while following online university courses or finishing their school degree while training towards their goals. 

“Adapting wasn’t easy at first,” says Luis Macedo, 23, who moved from Portugal to Frascati and started training at the facility in 2021. ”After organizing a schedule to manage my studies and training, I was able to keep up without neglecting my academic career.”

Fabio Galli, 56, one of the coaches at Frascati Scherma and the mentor of many Olympic medalists over the years, has observed and helped to develop the process of foreign athletes in Frascati since its start in 2014. ”The athletes coming from all over the world bring many values to the training ambiance, such as professionalism and hard work, but also a sense of community and friendship in a serene and joyful environment,” says Galli.

With Frascati Scherma continuing to show success through its international representation, it can be expected that the trend of young talents moving to Italy to pursue their dream of the Olympics will continue. 

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