As things stand, Italy are on the outside looking in with respect to qualifying in the Mixed Team Relay at the Paris Olympic Games. For most countries, that would be a major source of concern as the two male and two female slots on offer would be warmly accepted.
However, the Italian federation has no need to panic. Indeed, their attendance at the Mixed Team Relay Qualification Event in Huatulco may even be irrelevant. Italy are all but certain to qualify two men and two women through the individual Olympic rankings. Not only will they secure the same slots that a relay would offer, but qualifying said athletes would also entitle them to start in the relay at the Games.
There is no real precarity to the Italian position in general, then. Yet the story is different for the athletes. With deep pools of talent in both the men’s and women’s squads, there will be several unlucky names when the final team is selected and it is selection, not qualification, that will prove the primary headache.
Who has been selected already?
Keeping the suspense alive, no one has yet qualified for the Italian Olympic team.
None of the squad met the requirement of a top-8 finish at the Paris Test Event, nor did anyone from the country medal at the European Games or at an Olympic distance WTCS race last year.
There are still two future criteria that can be met. An athlete can be selected if they are either in the top-8 of the Olympic Qualification rankings at the end of the qualifying window or if they win an Olympic distance WTCS medal in 2024. Failing that, the team will be selected on discretionary grounds.
Who could take the remaining slots?
Women
To start with the Olympic rankings, Verena Steinhauser and Bianca Seregni lead the way. They are ranked 18th and 20th, respectively. However, both are more than 1000 points away from a top-8 ranking. Moreover, Steinhauser has a best WTCS finish of 8th in the qualifying window while Seregni’s best is a 10th place.
While it is not impossible for either to rise through the rankings or win a medal, they are running out of time. Most concerningly for them, only two of the top-8 women in the Olympic rankings have a full quota of Second Period results. That means most will almost certainly increase their totals. Moreover, the 9th and 10th ranked athletes also do not have full quotas and will boost their scores.
By contrast, Seregni and Steinhauser have full quotas of races. Closing the gap to 8th in the rankings will therefore be difficult.
If even one of them fails to meet the remaining criteria, the likes of Ilaria Zane, Alice Betto, Costanza Arpinelli, Angelica Prestia, Luisa Iogna-Prat and Beatrice Mallozzi will all fancy their chances of a discretionary selection.
Betto won a World Cup in 2023 while Zane earned two World Cup bronze medals. Prestia also took the bronze medal at the World U23 Championships and logged two 4th place finishes at World Cup races. There is therefore plenty of talent to choose from.
Steinhauser and Seregni remain the favourites but expect the coming few months to be mayhem in the Italian selection race.
Men
It is a similar story in the men’s selection race. World Cup medallists Michele Sarzilla (22nd) and Gianluca Pozzatti (29th) lead the way in the rankings. While they have all but locked up the Olympic slots for their country, they are quite a way back of a place in the top-8. The closest, Sarzilla, is the best part of 1500 points behind Csongor Lehmann who is 8th overall.
Both also have one WTCS top-10 finish to their names in the qualifying window. Pozzatti finished 7th in Cagliari in 2022 while Sarzilla finished 8th at the same race. A massive performance at Cagliari in May (where they will need a medal) could secure their Olympic fates. The size of the challenge, though, cannot be underestimated.
In addition to Sarzilla and Pozzatti, talents like Nicola Azzano, Nicolò Strada and Alessio Crociani are waiting in the wings. All three are younger and will be confident of logging their best ever results in 2024.
The strength of Strada and Crociani in the water might also play on the selectors’ minds when it comes to composing the relay.
As with the women’s race, the leaders in the rankings will back themselves to secure the spots on the Olympic team. When discretion comes into play, though, anything could happen. Thus, while the team could justifiably read Steinhauser, Seregni, Sarzilla and Pozzatti, there is a always a (slim) chance that none of the quartet end up at the Games.
