«The first gold medal in Nicholas Martinenghi. Pride of Varese on the Olympic podium in Paris. Great Tete…». This was tweeted by the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, he too is from Varese like the governor Attilio Fontana who in fact yesterday morning paid homage to the Italian’s feat in the Defense Arena pool in Paris: “I have the pleasure of knowing him personally – he says on the sidelines of the meeting of the Board – A truly serious, respectable, nice guy. A clean person who deserves what he has managed to obtain”. He comments on the first Italian gold medal, won by the Varese native and does not miss the opportunity to officially invite him to the Region: “Already three years ago in Tokyo – continues Fontana – Nicolò won a medal, it was not gold but bronze, once again he demonstrated his ability, his strength, his determination, especially because swimming is a very very “difficult” sport, with hard and continuous training. We are very proud of him and we are waiting for him at Palazzo Lombardia to celebrate…”. The first Italian gold at the Games is therefore Lombard, which counts for what it counts because never like in an Olympics does the Italian hold the entire country together, but which is still a great satisfaction also because it comes from the same Varese of the governor who has always been a fan of Martinenghi. The Italian swimmer who, 24 years after Domenico Fioravanti’s feat in Sydney, brought the Italian breaststroke back to the top step of the Olympics, was born in 1999 in Varese and lives in Azzate where he grew up with a “mania” for sports. A deep passion for basketball, for Pallacanestro Varese and for Inter football, which also influenced his studies, given that he attended and graduated from the “Marco Pantani” scientific sports high school in Busto Arsizio, a classmate of Matteo Gabbia, now a regular for the Rossoneri at Milan. But fortunately basketball and football remained in the drawer because “Tete”, as everyone calls him and as he describes himself in the very popular web series on YouTube “DiscoverTete” where he decided to share a piece of his life, his swimming, his training and his efforts, then decided to take the path of the swimming pool: “Joy, hate and pain”. Decisive in his life dad Samuelgoldsmith with a passion for basketball, his mother Alexandrathe brother Jacob and the girlfriend Adelaidethe first one he ran to hug after the victory. But the coach was decisive in his sporting growth Marco Pedojawho has always followed him, since he started in youth competitions and who had “prophesied” him the gold and Lorenzo Marconimental coach, capable of freeing his head from the tensions that a sport at this level can bring, drawing inspiration from the thoughts and spiritual exercises of Tibetan monks. The rest is a beautiful platinum-colored mop, a passion for fashion, for beautiful clothes and for Monopoly: because swimming is almost everything, but not everything…