Massimiliano Edgar "Massi" Rosolino (born 11 July 1978) is an Italian retired competitiveswimmer.[1]
Born inNaples to an Italian father, Salvatore, and anAustralian mother, Carolyn, he moved to Australia at the age of three, coming back to Italy at six. Rosolino declared about his beginnings as a swimmer:
I learned to float by sheer chance at the age of 4. Instead of the common arm floating bands, they made me swim with a headboard. Unfortunately it had a hole, and by the time I finally got out of the small and deep pool, the headboard had drowned... The first real swimming course I took was when I was 6 years old, and after that, lesson by lesson, I got to the pre-competition level. I always had a hard life, even though I was physically well-built, I always had to fight to become number 1, and even though I won a lot of races, I remember every race with emotion: the first regional championships, the national ones, the Young Europeans, and of course all the stomach aches I had.
In 2002 he moved back toAustralia to train with coachIan Pope at theMelbourne Vicentre Club.
Rosolino representedItaly in all of the four editions of theOlympic Games since 1996. At the2000 Olympic Games inSydney, he became the second Olympic champion ever in the history of Italian swimming as he won the gold medal in the 200 m individual medley (1:58.98, then Olympic and national record). He won two more medals: a silver medal in the 400 m freestyle setting the current European record (3:43.40) behindIan Thorpe, and a bronze medal in the 200 m freestyle (1:46.65) behindPieter van den Hoogenband andIan Thorpe. At the2004 Olympic Games inAthens, Rosolino won a bronze medal with the Italian team in the 4×200 m freestyle relay.
Rosolino is the most successful athlete in the history of Italian swimming, with an overall count of 60 international medals. He became world champion in the 200 m individual medley at the2001 World Championships inFukuoka. He also won 3 silver medals and a bronze medal through 5 editions of theWorld Long Course Championships. He won a gold medal (4×200 m freestyle relay), 2 silver medals and 7 bronze medals at theWorld Short Course Championships; since 1995 he won 21 medals at theEuropean LC Championships and 20 medals at theEuropean Short Course Swimming Championships, becoming European champion 14 times (7 long course, 7 short course).
In 2006, during the third edition of the Rai 1 television variety showBallando con le stelle, he met the Russian dance teacherNatalia Titova, with whom he began a relationship. The couple has two daughters.[2]
Rosolino's personal bests are:
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