Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a special spectator arrives at the Meazza Stadium: world-class swimming superstar Collo Martinegi, who was born in the town of Varese, 34 kilometres from the city of Milan.
The 24-year-old sports superstar has been a die-hard fan of Inter Milan since childhood, the most fanatical kind.
Ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (postponed to 2021 due to masks), Inter Milan won the Serie A title. Martinegi watched the game at the Meazza Stadium before the tournament and said: "Inter won the Serie A title and it will motivate me to do well at the Olympics".
In Tokyo, Martinegi performed well, winning bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke in 58.33 seconds, missing out on the title by 0.96 seconds but breaking the Italy national record. In addition, as a member of the 4x100m medley relay, he also helped Italy break the Italy record with a time of 3:29.17 and win the bronze medal.
In the entire Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Italy also had only 40 medals combined, and Martinegi became the number one hero.
Before the Paris Olympics, Martinegi returned to the Stade de Mayazza to witness Inter regain the Serie A trophy, and this time it was a special one: a historic achievement to embroider a second star on the shirt.
At the time, Martinegi said: "I won the title in 2021 and I was doing well at the Olympics. Inter did it again this year and I will be full of fighting spirit at the Olympics! Gold medal? Who knows! ”
In fact, at the 2020 Olympic Games, the 2021 Swimming World Cup, the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 European Swimming Championships, Martinegi was one of the favorites to win the bid, but they all missed the championship.
In Paris, however, Martinegi was lucky, swimming a new Italy record with a time of 59.03 seconds, narrowly beating United Kingdom Pieti by 0.02 seconds, dubbed "his lifelong enemy" by the Italian media.
Because the gap between the top three is so small, this is called by the Olympic Committee as "the most fierce and closest gold medal battle" since the beginning of the Paris Olympics.
Just like when Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei cherished each other, although Pitty and Martinegi competed many times, although this time he only lost the gold medal by 0.02 seconds, but he still kissed Martinegi for the first time, congratulated him, and said to him: We have created a classic together!
When delivering the acceptance speech, the reporter of Italy TV immediately said: "Your medal is finally the same color as your hair, how do you feel?" ”
Martinegi was a little caught off guard and tried to bypass the problem, because he had just finished the game and he was not even breathing, so he lost his voice for a while, and could only laugh at himself: "I actually lost my voice when I gave the gold medal speech...... But the good thing is that it doesn't matter what you say, what you do. ”
When it comes to his hair color, we have to mention Inter Milan.
Martinegi is a typical Italy ethnicity, blonde.
However, in the past two years, his hair color has been changing, and it is obviously not natural.
According to Inter fans on Twitter, several changes have something to do with Inter.
A typical Milanese native, Martinegi, like his young friends, often dyed his hair. About a year ago, Martinegi visited Inter's headquarters and dyed his hair black, probably because he had a good opinion of Zhang Kangyang, and he expressed his approval of Zhang Kangyang through social networking sites several times.
It may also be because his love for Inter has reached the point where he is very sensitive to color.
Not long ago, the North Stand picked up a series of life photos of Martinegi when he was a child and a student, and found that the clothes he wore every day, the schoolbag he carried, and the sheets he slept on were deliberately made blue-black, otherwise it would be uncomfortable.
Before the Paris Olympics, Martinegi visited the Meazza Stadium and dyed his hair big blonde. I hope to express a meaning: Inter has won the championship, and I must keep up, and I can't be satisfied with the bronze and silver medals!
This will put him at risk, and if he doesn't win the gold medal, it will be a bit embarrassing. But this may be the social function of competitive sports: Martinegi is a die-hard Inter fan, and it is also true that Inter Milan had succeeded in Serie A before the two Olympic Games, which was a mental and psychological inspiration for him.
In European sports, especially swimming, many players like to attack Chinese athletes for their drug prohibition.
Relatively speaking, Martinegi is an outlier, and in the interview, he has more respect for the Chinese players.
According to Inter fans on Twitter, there are several reasons. First, he recognized Zhang Kangyang's contribution to leading Inter out of the trough, and once said to Zhang Kangyang when he visited Inter headquarters that he wanted to go to China to see more after retiring.
Second, he has practiced badminton and served as a badminton commentator on TV stations, and he recognizes the strength of Chinese players.
Third, one of his friends is doing business in China, and from time to time he makes a "city not a city" to distinguish Martinegi from some Europeans who have limited knowledge of China.
Many things are like this, if you really understand it, you won't be led by people with ulterior motives.