Barbara and
Maurizio:
GOLDEN
ANGELS
Part
three: Waiting and Celebrating our Champions at the Skaters' Hotel
Click on the miniatures to see a larger version of the pics
The pics with a border are © of my friend Marianna Goggi
It
was already quite late when we got to the Hotel Danube with the
official bus, but we were so excited that time was flying and there
seemed to be no end to the flow of comments that we could make...
The Fusar Polis went to have something to eat, while we remained
in the hall of the hotel to wait for anyone to come back (Paolo
Fusar Poli's comment on our decision was:"You're even worse than
the Japanese fans!!")
Waiting in the hall we had the chance to see almost anyone pass
in front of us (we were strategically placed between the main door
and the elevators), but we were quiet, at this point really tired
and waiting for our champions.
Finally, at around half past midnight, Maurizio was the first to
arrive at the hotel, and was immediately surrounded by a tired but
enthusiastic group... We made a lot of noise and the cameras kept
flashing in the previously quiet hall, that was now filled with
true Italian spirit - when we have a reason to party, we make sure
we make everyone hear us! Apart from the Italian group, there were
also some foreign fans too, but we were first on the list!
Who
else had come to the hotel by now? Surely some more big names
from the arena! Look at this! Ready to congratulate again our
great dancer was also "mom" Tarassova, that was hugging him
with this incredible look in her eyes... what can I say? It
was sweet! Surely she must be very proud of her athletes!
With
Tarassova another one of her pupils had arrived to the hotel
Danube: this is just a quick glimpse of Alexei Yagudin talking
to a friend and one of the twins from Viterbo.
Some
more people have joined in the embrace: from left, Nives (Barbara's
mum), Rosy (Maurizio's mum), Tatiana, Maurizio, Jyrina (Maurizio's
girlfriend) and Paolo (Barbara's dad).
Everyone
who had contributed in creating this great success was being
celebrated: here were Nives and Paolo (Barbara's parents) with
the choreographer Ludmilla Vlasova.
We
were still waiting for Barbara to show up (her name had been
picked for the doping test, so she was still at the arena)
when the doors opened again and another big group of skaters
passed in front of us;
Chait and Sakhnovsky from Israel (he looks less terrible than
on TV, and has a wonderful little dog that's a younger version
of the famous Tootie of Olivia and Philippe Candeloro; she
has just the looks of a porcelain doll!), Drobiazko and Vanagas
from Lithuania, even the very sad French (Gwendal with his
gorgeous and tall girlfriend, Marina with her very serious
mother and Gwendal's mother with Muriel... apart from Marina,
there was definitely too much blond hair in this group!!)...
We still had our Italian scarves and flags, so we simply thought
that it was not the best moment to stop him (I mean, even
if we just wanted to tell him something nice we feared being
perceived as ironic, so we opted for "we'll see him another
time!")
Now we had to wait for Barbara, only we didn't know that we
were up for a very long wait!
The rest of the Italian team was there too... while waiting
for our First Lady I took the chance to have a couple of pics
taken with them too! Here I am with Valentina Anselmi and Fabrizio
Pedrazzini, who placed second at the National Championships
a couple of weeks earlier in Milan but only 20th at their very
first European Championships.
To me, they have the most gorgeous smile when they're on the
ice (but even off-ice they look pretty good, hm?)
Now I am with Angelo Dolfini, Italy's only one competitor in
the men's events... unfortunately he didn't reach the final,
so I just didn't get to see him on the Slovak ice, but I know
for sure that his free program could have been quite good!
By 1am we were bordering on dehydration, but there was still
no sign of Barbara. Diego (her husband) finally got to talk
to her on the cell phone, and triumphantly announced to the
crowd that she had managed to produce the necessary sample...
Well, it was quite a comic scene! We were all screaming with
joy and cheering because... Barbara had managed to give the
necessary urine sample! I was as happy as the others, but I
have to admit that writing it down I'm feeling a bit self-conscious!
It seems that this is a recurrent problem that plagues Barbara
at the end of competitions, as she's almost always unlucky enough
to be the one picked out... She told us that this time she even
tried to walk bare-footed on the ice to do the job!
Finally Barbara arrives at the hotel, and we were all reunited
in front of the door to greet her... here she was spinning in
front of us, laughing at all the cameras pointed towards her.
Barbara
is still blocked at the entrance of the hotel by a mob of adoring
fans... just behind her you can see her husband, ex short-track
athlete Diego Cattani. Doesn't he look cute?
Of
course the first thing we asked her was to show us the medal...
and she had to reach for it in her bag, because unlike Maurizio
who had come into the hotel proudly wearing it, she had already
put it away in its case!
She wanted to hug her family, so she simply took it out of the
case and handed it to us to conquer a minute for herself with
her loved ones.
Then it was photo time again!! We all took out our cameras and
queued to get our pic with Barbara!
Here
I am, finally next to her, who is holding proudly her golden
medal for the camera... How long must she have been dreaming
of this night?? I've been lucky enough to live this incredible
moment on my first trip in a foreign country just to follow
figure skating!
Here
finally we have reunited all Barbara's family present in Bratislava:
her mum, her dad, her husband and, first on the left, a very
nice French lady that's a great fan of the Italian couple.
Two very happy couples in the night of Bratislava: Barbara
and Diego, Maurizio and Jyrina (and a couple of golden medals
too!!)
Barbara and Maurizio are happily holding Francesca's flag (she
is the nice girl in the middle) that carries a great (and true)slogan:
they really are our "Italian Dream"!! P.S. Please notice also
the incredibly coloured trainers that Barbara is wearing! Aren't
they amazing??
This
is a great pic for me!
Two great champions,
two golden medals and me!
They
were posing for a journalist of the "Gazzetta dello Sport" -
Italy's most important sports newspaper - and a lot of us took
the occasion to have the same picture in our albums!!
It was now more than late, and Barbara was hungry too, so we
let her free and some of us took an elevator with Maurizio to
escort him to his room; he was quite disappointed at not having
a box where to put the medal, and when we told him that Barbara
surely had hers he was quite disappointed and produced a series
of cute faces - just like a child - making a note to himself
to go and ask for his box the next day.
We followed him right to his door, where we stopped to chat
for some minutes, asking his opinions (surely more competent
than ours) on that night's competition. We were still chatting
quietly when some German girls got out of their room and immediately
noticed Maurizio surrounded by our little group; they immediately
stooped and tried to listen to our conversation, but of course
we were talking in Italian so they had no chances of understanding
a single word - it was quite an absurd situation.
At some point one of the girls moved closer, leaned in between
two of us an grabbed Maurizio's medal, taking it closer to her
to look at it... there are no words to describe the puzzled
expression that we all had on our faces!
Then we wished Maurizio good night (his dinner was arriving
too), and left the hotel to find something to eat for us.
Barbara and Maurizio: GOLDEN
ANGELS
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 |
|
| Who
else had come to the hotel by now? Surely some more big names
from the arena! Look at this! Ready to congratulate again our
great dancer was also "mom" Tarassova, that was hugging him
with this incredible look in her eyes... what can I say? It
was sweet! Surely she must be very proud of her athletes! |
|
 |
 |
 |
With
Tarassova another one of her pupils had arrived to the hotel
Danube: this is just a quick glimpse of Alexei Yagudin talking
to a friend and one of the twins from Viterbo. |
|
Some
more people have joined in the embrace: from left, Nives (Barbara's
mum), Rosy (Maurizio's mum), Tatiana, Maurizio, Jyrina (Maurizio's
girlfriend) and Paolo (Barbara's dad).
|
 |
 |
Everyone who had contributed in creating this great success was being celebrated: here were Nives and Paolo (Barbara's parents) with the choreographer Ludmilla Vlasova. |
|
We
were still waiting for Barbara to show up (her name had been
picked for the doping test, so she was still at the arena)
when the doors opened again and another big group of skaters
passed in front of us;
Chait and Sakhnovsky from Israel (he looks less terrible than on TV, and has a wonderful little dog that's a younger version of the famous Tootie of Olivia and Philippe Candeloro; she has just the looks of a porcelain doll!), Drobiazko and Vanagas from Lithuania, even the very sad French (Gwendal with his gorgeous and tall girlfriend, Marina with her very serious mother and Gwendal's mother with Muriel... apart from Marina, there was definitely too much blond hair in this group!!)... We still had our Italian scarves and flags, so we simply thought that it was not the best moment to stop him (I mean, even if we just wanted to tell him something nice we feared being perceived as ironic, so we opted for "we'll see him another time!") Now we had to wait for Barbara, only we didn't know that we were up for a very long wait! |
 |
The rest of the Italian team was there too... while waiting
for our First Lady I took the chance to have a couple of pics
taken with them too! Here I am with Valentina Anselmi and Fabrizio
Pedrazzini, who placed second at the National Championships
a couple of weeks earlier in Milan but only 20th at their very
first European Championships. To me, they have the most gorgeous smile when they're on the ice (but even off-ice they look pretty good, hm?) |
Now I am with Angelo Dolfini, Italy's only one competitor in the men's events... unfortunately he didn't reach the final, so I just didn't get to see him on the Slovak ice, but I know for sure that his free program could have been quite good! |
 |
|
By 1am we were bordering on dehydration, but there was still
no sign of Barbara. Diego (her husband) finally got to talk
to her on the cell phone, and triumphantly announced to the
crowd that she had managed to produce the necessary sample...
Well, it was quite a comic scene! We were all screaming with
joy and cheering because... Barbara had managed to give the
necessary urine sample! I was as happy as the others, but I
have to admit that writing it down I'm feeling a bit self-conscious!
It seems that this is a recurrent problem that plagues Barbara
at the end of competitions, as she's almost always unlucky enough
to be the one picked out... She told us that this time she even
tried to walk bare-footed on the ice to do the job! |
|
 |
Finally Barbara arrives at the hotel, and we were all reunited in front of the door to greet her... here she was spinning in front of us, laughing at all the cameras pointed towards her. |
| Barbara is still blocked at the entrance of the hotel by a mob of adoring fans... just behind her you can see her husband, ex short-track athlete Diego Cattani. Doesn't he look cute? |
 |
 |
Of
course the first thing we asked her was to show us the medal...
and she had to reach for it in her bag, because unlike Maurizio
who had come into the hotel proudly wearing it, she had already
put it away in its case! She wanted to hug her family, so she simply took it out of the case and handed it to us to conquer a minute for herself with her loved ones. Then it was photo time again!! We all took out our cameras and queued to get our pic with Barbara! |
| Here I am, finally next to her, who is holding proudly her golden medal for the camera... How long must she have been dreaming of this night?? I've been lucky enough to live this incredible moment on my first trip in a foreign country just to follow figure skating! |
 |
 |
Here finally we have reunited all Barbara's family present in Bratislava: her mum, her dad, her husband and, first on the left, a very nice French lady that's a great fan of the Italian couple. |
|
Two very happy couples in the night of Bratislava: Barbara and Diego, Maurizio and Jyrina (and a couple of golden medals too!!) |
 |
 |
Barbara and Maurizio are happily holding Francesca's flag (she is the nice girl in the middle) that carries a great (and true)slogan: they really are our "Italian Dream"!! P.S. Please notice also the incredibly coloured trainers that Barbara is wearing! Aren't they amazing?? |
|
This
is a great pic for me!
Two great champions, two golden medals and me! |
 |
| They
were posing for a journalist of the "Gazzetta dello Sport" -
Italy's most important sports newspaper - and a lot of us took
the occasion to have the same picture in our albums!! |
|
 |
 |
It was now more than late, and Barbara was hungry too, so we let her free and some of us took an elevator with Maurizio to escort him to his room; he was quite disappointed at not having a box where to put the medal, and when we told him that Barbara surely had hers he was quite disappointed and produced a series of cute faces - just like a child - making a note to himself to go and ask for his box the next day. We followed him right to his door, where we stopped to chat for some minutes, asking his opinions (surely more competent than ours) on that night's competition. We were still chatting quietly when some German girls got out of their room and immediately noticed Maurizio surrounded by our little group; they immediately stooped and tried to listen to our conversation, but of course we were talking in Italian so they had no chances of understanding a single word - it was quite an absurd situation. At some point one of the girls moved closer, leaned in between two of us an grabbed Maurizio's medal, taking it closer to her to look at it... there are no words to describe the puzzled expression that we all had on our faces! Then we wished Maurizio good night (his dinner was arriving too), and left the hotel to find something to eat for us. |
|