Synchronized swimmer Francesco Cosentino goals of the Olympics – Digital Samachaar

Francesco Cosentino strikes in a world stuffed with glitter and drama. He’s the one male synchronized swimmer in Switzerland, the primary within the nationwide squad. On the weekend, the 16-year-old grew to become the primary man to participate within the Swiss synchronized swimming championships in Oberkirch.

Shortly earlier than the competitors, Cosentino stands in entrance of the swimming pool, sporting crimson swimming trunks with gold stripes and his toes. To his left, six ladies with silver swimming caps and thick eyeliner have lined up. He strides to the sting of the pool together with his chest proud. With a headlong dive he slides into the water.

The music “Present Me How You Burlesque” by Christina Aguilera performs. Cosentino, surrounded by younger girls, turns in circles within the water. Then the synchronized swimmers rush out of the water, dive down once more, somebody does the splits the other way up.

Within the water, the petite Cosentino merges with the synchronized swimmers; the truth that he’s a person turns into irrelevant. However when it’s dry, it stands out: the younger girls apply gelatin to their hair, they placed on make-up and put on glittery swimsuits. Cosentino does none of that. He sits alone exterior within the solar. As a person, he’s an unique determine right here; totally different guidelines apply to him.

Cosentino has to manage each motion and each breath in synchronized swimming.

Males had been unwelcome

Together with rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming was the one Olympic sport wherein solely girls had been allowed to take part for a very long time. Synchronized swimming combines ballet, acrobatics and swimming. The actions require power and endurance, however on the identical time they must look swish.

The judges typically additionally consider the athletes’ look. The sweetness ultimate: lengthy legs, slim stature, sturdy make-up. A great that places girls underneath strain and excludes them. And made it unimaginable for males to take part.

The game has been sluggish to speak in confidence to male synchronized swimmers. In spite of everything, males have been allowed to participate in worldwide competitions within the combined duet class since 2015. In Paris, males will participate within the Olympic Video games for the primary time in historical past.

This additionally applies to the American Invoice Might – on the age of 45. He truly wished to participate within the Olympic Video games in Athens in 2004. However the time was not but ripe for a person in synchronized swimming.

Cosentino’s objective can also be to participate within the Olympics, and he’s coaching exhausting for that. It’s nonetheless too early for Paris, however he desires to qualify sooner or later. He would then not compete for Switzerland, however for Italy – his residence nation. He grew up in Bologna and has solely been dwelling in Lausanne for six months.

There he attends a non-public faculty and trains for 3 hours a day within the evenings after faculty. He lives with Susanna De Angelis, the Italian is the coach of the Lausanne Aquatique swimming membership. Due to you, Cosentino got here to Switzerland.

Her classmates bullied her

De Angelis was a synchronized swimmer herself and has been coaching kids for forty years. She advocates for males to be accepted in synchronized swimming. She sees nice potential in Cosentino. She says he’s forward of the ladies within the Lausanne crew.

De Angelis hopes that there could be higher variety in synchronized swimming if extra males competed. She says: “Males are stronger. New acrobatic actions could be doable.” For instance, they may raise girls additional out of the water. The combined duet, wherein a lady and a person swim collectively, may be very standard with the viewers.

One of many best abilities that De Angelis has produced is Giorgio Minisini – her personal son. Minisini is among the greatest synchronized swimmers on the planet. The best way to the highest was a battle for him, says De Angelis. Judges advised her that Giorgio was misplaced and that synchronized swimming was not a sport for males. “Giorgio was all the time judged extra strictly than the ladies.” Wrongfully so, in her opinion. Males are stronger, however much less cell.

Whereas his friends performed soccer, Minisini danced within the water. Many admired him, some mocked and bullied him. As a youngster, he was bullied by his classmates; they insulted him as a gay and began fights. His mom says: “Individuals are afraid of the unknown.”

Francesco Cosentino additionally talks a few troublesome time in school in Italy and about classmates who teased him. Luckily, that point is over, he says, his voice faltering. He doesn’t like fascinated by it.

Minisini made the boys seen in synchronized swimming. In the present day there are a few dozen of them in Italy. He’s a robust position mannequin – additionally for Cosentino. Due to Minisini, he began synchronized swimming and caught to his dream regardless of all of the teasing. Such position fashions are lacking in Switzerland. Cosentino says he all the time has to clarify his sport right here.

Cosentino trains for 3 hours day by day. He says that’s little in synchronized swimming.

Minisini surprisingly excluded

The Olympics have the potential to make the game extra standard amongst males and to normalize male synchronized swimmers. Additionally in Switzerland. However to do that the boys have to say themselves in opposition to the synchronized swimmers. The Worldwide Olympic Committee has determined to not introduce new classes for males. They’ll solely compete within the crew self-discipline; the duet stays purely feminine. For as soon as the buildings are tailored to girls.

On Friday, the Italian Swimming Federation surprisingly introduced that Minisini wouldn’t be allowed to participate within the Paris Olympics. The rationale: The opponents are stronger. His mom De Angelis is indignant. She doesn’t perceive it, she says. And she or he’s not the one one: the outcry in Italy is large. “Unimaginable, no Olympic Video games for Giorgio Minisini,” was the headline on the Eurosport information portal, for instance.

In the mean time it seems just like the American Might would be the solely male synchronized swimmer on the Olympic Video games in Paris. Coach De Angelis says the boys now must do what girls have all the time carried out: struggle for his or her rights.