Barbara Fusar Poli - Maurizio Margaglio:
The return of the Italian Angels

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005: at a press conference at the Hotel Meridien Lingotto in Torino,
they announce their come back and explain their motivations.

"We put ourselves on trial for a period, and now we have decided that we are ready to come back. We had already informed the ISU that we were trying, and now we can confirm that we're coming back to the competitions for the 2005-2006 season".
After so many voices and speculations, it is time for the official announcement: Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio are coming back to the competitions for the upcoming Olympic season, in great shape and more than ever ready for the fight. At a press conference held on September 21st at the Hotel Meridien Lingotto in Torino, they announce their intentions and motivations.
Among the greatest Italian winter sports athletes, Barbara and Maurizio have been skating together since 1994 and are the Italian couple who has won the most in ice dancing. Their palmares boasts 8 consecutive national titles, 15 grand prix podium placements (9 of which on the highest step), the European title conquered in Bratislava in 2001, a gold medal at Worlds in Vancouver in the same year, two European silver medals in Losanna 2002 and Vienna 2000, another silver at worlds in 2000, and the Olympic bronze medal in Salt Lake City in 2002 - their last competition till now.
After so many satisfactions, what pushed them to put themselves to the test again? "Surely the fact that we saw the European Championships live last year in Torino, and we saw that the level was not impossible. The Olympics are in our country... how could we resist the temptation? We are working at our maximum level, are happy with ourselves as there could be nothing more to do, and the feed back at this stage of our preparation is great; the programs are coming together very well, we have found musics we're enthusiast about and we are really, really happy".
Since their retirement in February 2002 lots of things have changed: the rules and even more the judging system have been totally changed. But Barbara and Maurizio never really left the ice dancing world: her a coach, him a technical specialist, they have followed the evolution of their sport and are ready to measure themselves with it, with renewed confidence. "The impact with the new rules has been quite difficult at the beginning, because it is a very different way of skating; we used to skate very fast doing slightly simpler things, while now you get to be slower on the ice, and you have to create the dynamism with the speed of execution; the system is new and we believe in it very much, finally it will really be evaluated what one will have really done on the ice, unlike the previous years, and there won't be any more discussions as it had happened in the past. We are coming back aiming to the maximum goal, the one that in Salt Lake City we couldn't reach starting from the compulsories".
Barbara and Maurizio trains daily at the Ice Stadium Agorà in Milano, guided by Paola Mezzadri, who has been their coach since the beginning of their career; at their side they have found also choreographer Ludmilla Vlasova, already a fixed presence in their past in the creation of many of their programs, and starting form this year Natalia Linichuk, a great Russian coach, Olympic champion herself in 1984 and since then guide of many champions to the highest international successes."Natalia has been trying to convince us for a year, saying that there was not even one couple in the top group with our charisma, and so we had to come back. Once decided, we needed an external consultant of the highest level, and we are working very well with her, we have the opportunity to skate alongside a high level couple as the Bulgarians Denkova - Stavisky, and this is a continual challenge which is stimulating for us, we like to skate with someone of this level".

Baron Pierre De Coubertin said in the Olympic creed that "the most important thing is not to win but to take part; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well", but not all athletes can agree with him, especially someone with the character and combativeness of Barbara and Maurizio, whose goal is very high. How much? The ice of Torino 2006 will give us the answer.

Paola Occhipinti and Melania Resnigo, as published by www.torino2006.org