Valentina Vezzali: the fencing champion guest of the Forte Village resort

Valentina Vezzali: the athlete symbol of Italian fencing becomes a trainer

Valentina Vezzali, a multiple champion at the worlds Olympic Games, has earned her right to enter the Olympus of fencing because of her many victories and broken records, making her the woman who has won the most prizes with a sward, and one of the Italian athletes to have won the most prizes in their discipline.

Many sports icons visit the prize-winning resort Forte Village in Santa Margherita di Pula in the province of Cagliari, after hosting Margherita Grambassi, the resort welcomes the fencing champion Valentina Vezzali.

The strongest Italian female fencing champion will be waiting at the Fencing Academy, one of the 20 Sports academies present at the resort, to welcome children and teenagers and help them learn and play under the attentive surveillance of international champions from various disciplines.

Those subscribing to the sports Academy can train with Valentina from the 12th to the 17th of July 2020, there will be three separate groups based on the age of the participants. They will also receive a kit with a Nike t-shirt and a glove to be used during the lessons.

There will be group lessons from Monday to Friday, and individual lessons in the Sports Academy Center gym which has four professional plates of the latest technology so to learn this marvelous sport.

Valentina Vezzali: sports career and personal life

Ex fencer, ex politician, Italian policewoman, and superintendent of the State Police, Maria Valentina Vezzali was born on Valentine’s Day in 1974 in Jesi, a municipality in the province of Ancona, and her parents are originally from Reggio.

She started fencing in 1980, when she was very young, in the Club Scherma Jesi. Her first victories occurred when she was just 15 at the World Championship Cadets, then to follow where medals won at the under 20 and she was debut at the Atlanta Games in 1996, where she received the silver and gold medal in the group duels. This was the beginning of an outstanding sports career that will transform her into a world legend.

Valentina Vezzali has won six gold medals, one silver, and two bronze at the Olympic Games, a total of 9 extraordinary recognitions which made her one of the sportsmen in the world with the most medals and Olympic gold medals. Edoardo Mangiarotti and her and Nedo Nadi, famous Italian fencers, have the most gold medals but she is also the woman with the most medals in the Italian history of the sport.

This is not all, Valentina Vezzali is also the sixth sportsman in the world to have conquered three Olympic gold medals in one individual specialty and the fifth to have won 5 consecutive medals in Atlanta, 1996, and London, 2012. She also won 16 world titles, 13 European, 5 world university games, 3 Mediterranean games, 11 world cups and 30 national titles, since 2016 her name shines in the walk of fame of Italian sport.

From 2000 to 2005 and in 2007, the Gazzetta dello Sport gave her the sportsmen of the year prize, and the same newspaper nominated her fencer of the world in 2004. She was honored Order Commander by merit of the Italian Republic and in 2008 she received the honourable title as Grate order Officer by merit of the Italian Republic.

She published two autobiographic books: A viso scoperto, written in collaboration with Caterina Lucchetti, edited by Sperling & Kupfer in 2006, in 2012 she released Io, Valentina Vezzali, published by Baldini Castoldi Dalai and written in collaboration with the journalist Betta Carbone.

She is nicknamed “the cobra” because of her fast attacks, Vezzali put her sward away after the world championship of Fencing in Rio, 2016 and ended her career with a silver medal.

On the 22nd of June 2002 she married the ex professional football player Domenico Giuliano with who she has had two children: Pietro, born in the 9th of June 2005, and Andre, born on the 16th of May 2013. Their love story lasted 14 years after which they decided to separate.

In 2009 Valentina engaged a new love story with the dancer Samuel Peron who participated in the 5th edition of Ballando con le Stelle, the reality show by Rai. That same year she was testimonial of the Kinder Cereali publicity add and godmother of the cruise ship Costa Luminosa by the company Costa Crociere. Starting from 2010 she is the face of La gardenia dell’AISM campaign of the Italian association of multiple sclerosis.

She entered politics in 2013 as a candidate at the Deputy Chamber in the lists of civil choice for Italy by Mario Monti and she was elected front-runner in the Marche. In July 2015 she was national vice president of the political party which she left in 2017 so to join Gruppo Misto.

Since 1999 Vezzali has been part of the State Police sports group Fiamme Oro, and today she is ready to stand on the podium at the Fencing Academy at Forte Village Resort to train children and teens that dream of becoming a champion just like her.

Would you like to discover the secrets of fencing and train with Valentina Vezzali in a unique location? Discover Forte Village Resort in Sardinia.