Milano Cortina 2026 is proud to have Federica Pellegrini as Ambassador. Federica has won the most awards of any Italian swimmer. Hers is an exceptional sporting career, crowned by becoming the first female Italian Olympic swimming champion in history (winning gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 200m freestyle). Nicknamed 'La Divina', or 'the divine one', Federica Pellegrini's fairy tale career began with a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004. She has gone on to win 53 international medals - including six golds at the World Championships (reaching the podium on all eight occasions she competed in the 200m freestyle), and seven at the European Championships.
An impressive record tally (Pellegrini still holds the world record for the 200m freestyle today), marking a career that ended last summer with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She had been chasing after this last great sporting achievement for two years, and indeed, it was the perfect conclusion to a stellar career: Pellegrini became the first woman in the history of swimming to reach the Olympic final for the same event on five consecutive occasions.
