Filippo Magnini

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Filippo Magnini.

Olympic medal record
Men’s Swimming
Bronze	2004 Athens	4x200 m freestyle relay
World Aquatics Championships
Gold	2005 Montreal	100 m freestyle

Filippo Magnini (born February 2, 1982) is an Italian swimmer, currently 100 m freestyle World Champion.

[edit] Biography

Magnini was born in Pesaro, Marche.

As a youth he played basketball, soccer, beachvolley and tennis, but shifted to swimming at the age of ten. His first cap with Italian Swimming National Team is in 1998. Grown as a breaststroker, after 2000 he dedicated totally to freestyle swimming, starting soon to achieve noteworthy results. Magnini gained his first international score in 2003, with a silver medal in 100 m freestyle at the Dublin European Swimming Championships (short pool). He will won more three gold medal (100 m, 4x100 relay and 4x200 relay freestyle) and one bronze medal in Madrid 2004 European Championships, this time in the olympic pool. At 2004 Summer Olympics Magnini won the bronze medal in the 4x200 m freestyle relay, scoring 5th in the 100 m freestyle single race. His stead rise touched its highest point in 2005 World Aquatics Championships, when he won the gold medal in the men's 100 m freestyle with the time of 48.12, all-time second fastest behind Pieter van den Hoogenband's world record.

At the 2006 European Championships in Aquatics he won the gold medal in the 100 m and in the 4x200 m freestyle races, and a bronze in the 200 m freestyle.

Magnini's nickname is "Superpippo". Pippo is the normal Italian nickname of Filippo but also of Goofy's Italian version, and therefore the complete nickname refers to the funny superhero in which the comics character transform sometimes in his Italian edition. Though generally a good velocist, Magnini feels himself at best in the 100 m freestyle, where he can use at best his capability to rise in speed gradually: in this way he can reach a very high speed in the last 25 meters, where normally other swimmers begin to slow. His leg stroke is today considered world's strongest one.