Alice Betto’s comeback in 2023 has been a story of inexorable improvements. At every race, the Italian athlete seemed to get better and she capped it with a first ever international gold medal.
Like Katie Zaferes and Gwen Jorgensen, Betto’s time away from the sport came as a result of a maternity break. She had last raced at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2021 and it would be over 18 months before she returned to the Series.
In comparison to her two American counterparts, Betto was a little late to the party in terms of getting back to international racing. Whereas Jorgensen made her first start in February and Zaferes did so in March, Betto made her first foray back into the sport by winning a silver medal at the Italian Middle Distance Championships in May.
A month later, at the end of June, she made her international return as she finished 9th at the European Games in Krakow. Another month after that, her WTCS return came in Sunderland. In a solid performance, Betto finished 21st.
With the end of the summer in sight, then, Betto had not logged a lot of results. However, she had only just got started.
After finding her feet in Sunderland, at her next two races she picked up where she left off before her maternity break.
At her next appearance, at the Paris Olympic Test Event, she finished 13th in an impressive all-round performance. Notably, she was beaten by Zaferes to 12th place by only 2 seconds and was only 13 seconds away from a top-10 finish.
After being close to the top-10 in Paris, she made it at her next race. At the WTCS Final in Pontevedra, Betto claimed 10th place with another excellent display. Her swim fired a little better in Pontevedra than in Paris which put her in contention throughout.
Her form in Paris and Pontevedra also gave clear indication that she had rediscovered her 2021 form. That year, she logged finishes of 8th at WTCS Hamburg, 13th at the WTCS Final in Edmonton, 7th at the Tokyo Olympics and 11th at WTCS Leeds.
In 2023, with only a handful of races under her belt, Betto was clearly back.
After Pontevedra, she did not slow up. Instead, she continued her surge up the world rankings as she continued to improve her finishing positions.
An 8th place at the Rome World Cup followed after she made the initial five-woman breakaway. Then came Brasilia.
Throughout the swim and bike at the Brasilia World Cup, Betto had executed a near-perfect race. On the first of the three run laps, she found herself in a front pack of six with Katie Zaferes, Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal, Miriam Casillas Garcia, Verena Steinhauser and Petra Kurikova. All had WTCS or World Cup medals to their names but Betto remained tucked into the group.
One by one her rivals slipped back until only Zaferes and Betto remained. On the undulating course, the two leaders forged onwards all the while keeping an eye on one another.
After Zaferes had gotten the better of her in Paris, Betto had to pick her moment. In the end, she did so flawlessly. With a perfectly-timed attack on the descent on the final lap, Betto broke clear and ran all the way to a first World Cup win. More than that, it represented her first ever international victory.
Betto thus joined Jorgensen in becoming one of the two comeback athletes in 2023 to win a World Cup, although Katie Zaferes was hard done by in that respect.
Of greater note, Betto’s win indicated more than anything that she was back to her very best shape. She had won World Cup medals before and memorably claimed the silver medal at the Tokyo Test Event in 2019 (after the first two finishers were disqualified). Brasilia, though, will stand out as one of the best performances of her career.
With a first win, she had surpassed any expectations for her comeback and loudly announced that she meant business. To sign off her season, she added a 4th place finish at the Miyazaki World Cup.
Having found her feet at the WTCS level and shown such an impressive level in Brasilia, it would only be natural for attention to turn to Betto’s Olympic prospects.
She currently sits 45th in the Olympic rankings (a single place behind Zaferes as it happens). With Verena Steinhauser and Bianca Seregni safely placed in the top-20, one of Ilaria Zane (39th) or Betto will need to make it into the top-30 of the rankings to earn a third female Olympic slot for the Italian team.
Having logged no results in First Period of Olympic qualification, Betto would be ranked 14th based on points logged in the Second Period. She now has seven scores to her name and can still add to her total. There is a cap of twelve scores across the two periods, although all twelve scores cannot come in one window.
To get to 30th, Betto has to close a 1000 point gap. With some scores to improve upon (like Krakow and Sunderland) and the potential to add another result, it is not impossible for her to make up the ground.
She would realistically need three top-10 WTCS finishes before the end of the qualification window to make it. After her performances in Paris, Pontevedra and Brasilia, that is by no means out of reach.
Also note that none of the four leading Italian women have yet satisfied the automatic nomination criteria set out in the Italian Olympic selection policy. Essentially, winning a medal at WTCS Yokohama or WTCS Cagliari in 2024 will be the only way an athlete can meet the automatic criteria. Thereafter, discretionary selection could come into play.
Overall, then, the signs are that Betto is back in full swing and should be a regular top-10 contender at the WTCS in 2024. Having picked up where she left off and won Brasilia, she has had a tremendous comeback.
After such a positive return thus far and with the Olympics on the horizon, maybe Alice Betto will go even higher still.
