The Italian K4 dreams of Paris 2024, Manfredi Rizza: “I feel young again”

The Italian national canoe sprint team is ready to get an important new season underway. Manfredi Rizza, Alessandro Gnecchi, Andrea Di Liberto, Giacomo Cinti, Samuele Burgo, Andrea Schera and Tommaso Freschi underwent routine medical examinations at CONI’s Institute of Sports Medicine and Science at the “Giulio Onesti” Olympic Preparation Centre in Rome.

“It is very important for us to be able to train at our best, and to do it we need to be healthy”, said Manfredi Rizza, silver medallist in the K1 200 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. “Undergoing a complete check-up here allows us to avoid any future problems so that we can get the season off to the right start". 

The Azzurri are coming back from an intense winter preparation period: “The meetings are going well. We spent a month in Castel Gandolfo and three in Carlentini, Sicily, working hard: we are all set to start the competitions". 

It is a demanding task for Rizza who, after the removal of the K1 200 from the Olympic programme, has had to reinvent himself in the K4 500. And there is a lot of curiosity surrounding the Italian crew made up of Gnecchi, Di Liberto and Cinti. “For me, coming from K1, everything is a bit new", admits the athlete from Pavia, Lombardy. “I have been catapulted into a team dynamic that I like a lot: at 31 years of age I am feeling young again. I’m really happy with the way things are going". 

There are many crucial dates this season, with all eyes inevitably turned to Paris 2024: “The main goal in 2023 is to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris. We have been working at this for over a year. We have important stages planned with this in mind: a competition in Milan in April, two World Cup trials in Hungary and Poland, and the European Games in Krakow. Then the World Championships at the end of August in Duisburg". He is proud of what has already been achieved but, above all, ambitious about what is to come: “The Tokyo chapter is over. I am someone who always tries to focus on the present and the future. Paris 2024 could be my last Olympics; I am determined and very motivated. It would be important and, in a way, historic to be able to qualify with the K4 at the Games".