Federica Pellegrini

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Federica Pellegrini has become the face of the swimming world championships after raising the sport's profile by spending almost as much time in the gossip pages as in the pool. The 20-year-old heads to Rome, where the long course swimming begins on Sunday, as the host nation's main hope for gold following a string of controversies surrounding world records, costumes, boyfriends, sexy photos and body piercings. She is hot favorite for Tuesday's 200 meters freestyle final having won gold at last year's Beijing Olympics and bronze at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne. Pellegrini is also the world record holder in ... Read Full Story

Olympic champion Federica Pellegrini pulled out of a domestic 400m freestyle race on Friday due to feeling ill just seconds before it was about to start. The 20-year-old won the gold medal in Beijing at 200m freestyle and is the current world record holder for that event as well as the 400m freestyle in both long and short courses. She was about to step onto the starters' blocks for the 400m freestyle heats at the Primaverili di Riccione meet before suddenly heading back to the changing rooms. "This morning Federica Pellegrini pulled out of the 400m freestyle heats at the Primaverili championships after feeling ... Read Full Story

Federica Pellegrini kisses the gold medal. (Photo credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images) (Beijing August 13) -- Italy's Federica Pellegrini won gold with a world record time of 1:54.82 in the Women's 200m Freestyle final at the National aquatics center on Wednesday, August 13. Pellegrini's time was 0.63 seconds under the old world record mark. The swim was all the more impressive because of Pellegrini's heavy Beijing 2008 Olympic Games schedule. Sara Isakovic of Slovenia, the fastest qualifier into the final on Tuesday, August 12, took silver in 1:54.97. China's hopes for a surprise gold medal in the race looked good early on with Pang Jiaying ... Read Full Story

They sought each other until they finally met: the fastest female swimmer in the world, Federica Pellegrini, and the new Maserati GranTurismo S Automatic. The meeting between these two “superb examples of Italian excellence” took place in Verona, where the champion trains by swimming daily in the pool at least 20 kilometers. To celebrate in the best [...] Read Full Story

Federica Pellegrini said she was the greatest Italian athlete ever after winning the 200m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships on Wednesday in a world record, her 10th overall. Pellegrini, 20, clocked one minute, 52.98 seconds in winning the 200, breaking her own world record. She also was the first woman to break four minutes in the 400 when she won in 3:59.15 on Sunday. "Without any false modesty, I didn't think there were any doubts about that as of a few world records ago. There you have it," Pellegrini, who won the Olympic 200 last year, said when asked if she was the ... Read Full Story