The eternal Gregorio Paltrinieri wins bronze in the 800m freestyle: tenth medal for Italia Team at the Games

A magnificent Gregorio Paltrinieri made his podium debut at the Paris 2024 Games.

On the fourth evening of swimming finals at the Defence Arena, the brilliant athlete from Carpi claimed bronze in the 800m freestyle, confirming his status among the top three at the Olympic level following the silver he won in Tokyo three years ago. 

The Azzurro (photo by Roberto Di Tondo/CONI), who secured the third-best time overall in the heats (7:42.48), was in contention for victory for a large part of the final race but had to settle for third place in the last 50 metres after being overtaken by Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen (7:38.19) and the American Bobby Finke (+0.56). Paltrinieri finished behind them, touching the wall 1.19 seconds behind the leader. 

For Italia Team, this marks the tenth medal at the Parisian edition of the Olympics, the third in individual swimming events after the two golds secured by Nicolò Martinenghi (100m breaststroke) and Thomas Ceccon (100m backstroke).