Nadia Battocletti was one of a record-breaking number of Italian athletes to have delivered golden moments at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, building the perfect platform for her second Olympic Games in Paris.
In the distance runner’s case, it was a brilliant double dose at Roma 2024, landing the women’s 5000m and 10,000m titles as part of Italy’s 11 gold medal haul.
It cemented her place at the forefront of European distance running, as she first took the 5000m title on the opening night of action in a national record of 14:35.29, setting the tone for a memorable few days for Italian athletics.
And then on the penultimate night, she made light of strength sapping conditions to win the 10,000m in another national record of 30:51.32.
"Leap in quality"
“I think I have made another leap in quality these past few days, and today's race proves it,” she said in the immediate aftermath of clinching a distance double in the Stadio Olimpico.
“But it's amazing that I did in front of an amazing audience. I had three exams to this week: an exam in Wood Architecture at the University of Trento, which I attend, just the day before leaving for Rome. Then these two races: I passed them all with great results!”
Rising talent
Battocletti has been a rising talent in the sport for several years, twice winning medals the European Athletics U20 Championships (5000m silver, 2019 Boras and 3000m bronze, 2017 Grosseto) and putting together a superb winning streak at the European Cross Country Championships (U20 gold, 2018 Tilburg, 2019 Lisbon and U23 gold, 2021 Dublin, 2022 Turin).
She announced her presence on the senior stage with a breakthrough seventh place in the 5000m final at Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in 14:46.29. Injury stalled her progress when shin splints forced her out of the Eugene 2022 World Athletics Championships and the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships.
She was disappointed at the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships, when a brutal 5000m semi final run of 14:41.78 left her down on power for the final, where she placed 16th in 15:27.86. “Since that day I began training even more in order to live again the pleasure of running,” she said.
She redeemed herself at the year-ending SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels, where she placed second in the senior women’s race to Norway’s vastly experience Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal. It was a result she reversed at Roma 2024, the Italian’s sprinting ability relegating Grovdal to silver.
"A lot of confidence"
Now she is looking to her second Olympic Games with renewed confidence. “The big focus is of course Paris,” she confirmed, “But we have had the European Athletics Championships in our home country, so we had to do two peaks.
“These results (Roma 2024) allow me to gain a lot of confidence and to think that I can run even better. I am building myself step by step and I believe I can continue to grow.”
Along with the likes of Olympic champions Gianmarco Tamberi (men’s high jump), Marcell Jacobs (men’s 100m), Massimo Stano (men’s 20k walk), Antonella Palmisano (women’s 20k walk), she is part of a golden generation of Italian athletes, feeding off one another’s success.
“We are really amazing team, after Silesia last year, where we won the European Team Championships, we start to break records, win medals. There is a beautiful atmosphere in the squad,” she smiles.
Now Battocletti is starting to make a significant mark in a sport that she always looked destined to.
Her father – now coach – Giuliano won 5000m bronze at the 1994 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lisbon and clocked 60:47 over the half marathon distance, whilst her mother Jawhara Saddougui was a talented 800m in Morocco in her youth.
“I was about seven years old,” she says, identifying the moment when she first began to run. “When I was a child, I did a lot of sports. Golf, cycling, swimming, a lot.
“Then I chose track and field more in general, due to my parents, but also because I also appreciated the life after the races.”
"Nothing is impossible"
She is now undaunted by the significant challenges she will face on the global stage this summer, starting at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on Friday (12). But buoyed by her Olympic experience and her Roma 2024 success, she has set no limits for what she can achieve.
“In Tokyo I changed my state of mind and my physics,” she said. “I started to think nothing is impossible, I can do anything if I focus on it and sacrifice a lot.”
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics