Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

I spent a good amount of time yesterday thinking about Giorgio Lamberti. I don't know why, but he popped into my head. On the one hand there wasn't much to think about. I realized I know hardly anything about him. I embarked on a quest to find out more. Surely a google search would satisfy my thirst for biographical information on Giorgio. Alas, I found very little and I'm left with a question. Why doesn't anyone care about Giorgio Lamberti?

Ok, maybe that question is a little too dramatic. I'm sure that somewhere out there are people that care about him. If you're reading this article and haven't a clue as to who he is, let me fill you in. Giorgio Lamberti was the world record holder in the 200 free for a ten year period, longest in the modern era of swimming (post World War Two). He swam in two Olympic games, the first coming the year before his ascension to the world record and the next the year after he was world champion in the 200 free. Had he medaled, gold or otherwise in either of those two games, there might be more people out there singing the praises of Giorgio Lamberti.

His disappointing performances on the biggest stage have a lot to do with making
Lamberti forgettable. How could we forget him though? He held the 200 free world record far longer than Thorpe, Schollander, Spitz, Michael Gross or any of the other dominant freestylers of the modern era. How could it be in a time period where world record holders rarely keep a record for more than a few years Lamberti held onto his for so long. Furthermore, who can remember a longstanding record that seemed more anonymous. In recent memory, the longest standing world records were Mary T Meagher's butterfly records that stood for nearly two decades and Janet Evans distance records, with her 800 past twenty years now. Each group of records were famous not only because they stood so long but also for the iconic swimmers that set them.

Is it my American bias showing through? Its possible that if I lived in Italy I wouldn't feel the same silence. Maybe Lamberti is celebrated as the greatest Italian freestyler of all time with apologies to Massi Rollino? I don't know and due to my acute lack of Italian I have almost no way of finding out.

Was there some freakish lack of middle distance freestylers to challenge his record over this period? I looked back at World Championship and Olympic results over the time period of 1989-1999 when Lamberti held the record. Lamberti withstood challenges from Danyon Loader, Yevgeni Sadovyi, Anders Holmertz and Antti Kasvio. While it may not exactly seem like a murderers row today, both Loader and Sadovyi were double Olympic champions, and Holmertz and Kasvio remain in the top 25 all time in the event. Of course, maybe all these swimmers seem as anonymous to us as Lamberti because of their foreign citizenship.

I think therein lies the answer. Today in America, whether you agree with it or not, there are a high number of foreign swimmers training. Some are with colleges and others remain in the country to utilize our great training systems. When Lamberti was of age the flow of foreign swimmers to the US collegiate ranks was still at a slow trickle.

Cesar Cielo's name is familiar to most American swimming fans, despite the fact that he has yet to medal at a World Championship or Olympic games. Why? Because he swims for Auburn University and spends at least some of the year training in the US. Cielo is recognizable and will be remembered for a long time in American swimming ranks. Perhaps had Lamberti and his compatriots spent some time matriculating in the US they would be remembered better today.