00:00:00: Welcome to this podcast, water Portal Expert Talk. Yeah. welcome to the podcast we have, a woman in the podcast, which makes me very happy. welcome Isabella, and thanks for joining us today. And maybe you can give us this, some briefly introduction of yourself at the beginning. Hi, thank you so much for the invitation. I'm Isabella Cini. I am, half Brazilian and half Italian water polo player. that's basically you. there are also some Yeah. Women are also men in the water polo community with these mixed country history, so to say. Yes. Of Brazil, Italian, Brazil, Spain. Yeah. We have Philippe peon, which is Brazilian and Spanish. the best player of all time, in my opinion. So based on his yeah, move to the other country, you say, okay, this might be also good for you.

Yeah, exactly. And there was another Brazilian, a woman in like: back in, The first time that Italy won the Olympics in, Athens 2004, there was one Brazilian water polo player that had Italian citizenship. And then she went there and she won a gold medal. I was like, okay, I wanna be like her. Perfect. At least, the attendance of the Olympic Games, fulfilled the goal So maybe you have now to work on the medal part. Yeah, exactly. it worked because with the Brazilian national team, it would be hard. that's why I decided to switch nationalities. Okay. So maybe at the beginning. just to get a little bit more to know from you personally. So when your teammates have to describe you with a few words, What would you say about you? I think they would say, I am competitive. Okay. Competitive with Everything in practice I've never wanna lose. And intense passionate and funny.

Okay. Yeah. So: the last one with the funny part really makes all the other things before a little bit smarter. Yeah, exactly. so you mentioned your. roots in Brazil. how was it to come in touch with water polo? So are there any familiar boundaries regarding water polo or how do you come in touch with water polo the first time? yes. My dad used to play water polo. He. Was my coach for most part of my water polo career, and also my mom. So was it a good thing or maybe not such a good thing to have your father, the coach?

Speaker 3 It has it's good things, but it also was really hard because he was so harsh on me. Every time, like I would, he would kick me out of practice at least once a week, at least once a week, and. Everything was like really harder on me. If he had to say: something, he would be 10 times harder on me than he would be with someone else. Which at the time maybe was like not as. Cool. Not as funny, but but I would say that if I got to the level where I am now, basically 90% of it, it's because of having my dad as a coach. Speaker 2: The view is changing or your point of view is maybe changing over the last couple of years. Yeah. Exactly. And the history and the first beginnings of the career and now, okay, maybe it was not so bad in the past sometimes Speaker 3: exactly with the maturity, with the age and getting older, and then you start to realize that it was. R some part of it was really good for me to get to the level where I am today. 'cause he always pushed me more and more.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Which is funny by the way. Yeah. So when we have also here in the podcast, the kind of discussion about, okay,: I have my father or my mother as. Coach at the very beginning, then the point of view is really changing over from time over the time. And looking back, it was for most of the people really then also benefit. And at the moment when you are young and your dad is maybe your, was your coach. Yeah. It was maybe also only your personal impression that he's really pushing you more than the others. In his perspective, it was nothing. Yes, Speaker 3: but it's exactly like this. And I also had, my mom, they used to play water polo. She was also in the Brazilian national team, so I had both parents that understood water polo. So basically, if I had a bad game, I didn't know if I wanna go back. Home with my mom or my dad, because I knew that I would hear from them a lot. So I was just like I think I'm gonna walk home. I don't wanna. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. So when, you know, the one who's maybe then a little bit more patient, a little bit more politely here in this case, in situations, yeah. So you can choose, yeah. Between the two of them. Speaker 3: Yeah. But it was a hard decision because, Speaker 2: okay.

Yeah.: So maybe then for the one who's not been choosing by you. Yeah. So what about the standing of water poem in Brazil? Is this, let's say, growing country for water polo? Is it also a country with long history? So you also mentioned already Philip Perona which is also one. Outstanding example. Yeah. For water polo player coming from Brazil. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: What do you think about the standing of water polo? Speaker 3: Honestly couple years ago, I would say that it was going down. But now I think it, it's more like normal, stable because there is, there was never investment in women's water polo. Most of it would go to the men's.

And you could tell already by the Olympics when they hired Rudi as the coach, and then they brought Philippi Pei they brought a goalie soro that was. Also an outstanding player. They brought a center that, I think he's: playing with the Croatian national team now. So they brought a lot of foreigner players and to make a better team. Some of them didn't even have the Brazilian passport they just came to, to actually play the Olympics. And for the woman's, they got as a coach, but it was a great coach where I had like my golden years with him. I would say like that. He made me play really well. But it was that was the investment we had to. Make like a fundraising one time on the internet because we needed to, we needed money to go practice with the other teams because they think it's hard to grow if you don't practice against the teams, if you don't play against the teams that you're going to play in the championships. And we are far from, I mean, the US is the closest country that we can, we could go.

But it was hard because Europe has all the countries are really close. You can get like a one hour flight and then you are in Hungary, Spain or whatever. And here: we the closest is the US which is 12 12 hours flight. So that was also an issue for us. And most of the money would go to the mans. Because they thought that the mens had a better chance to do well at the Olympics. And who the people who actually understands water polo, they would know that. For women, it's easier to improve, like such a huge gap in a short period of time than the men's. But that's how they chose it. I think after it was supposed to go up af before, excuse me, after the Olympics. It was supposed to improve, but it actually got down because then the investment, the little investment that we had was over. And then it was just for the Olympics. Speaker 2: Yeah. It sounds in other the situation in many other countries as well. So I think Brazil are not the only one or only countries struggling with these kind of situations at the moment.

But.: So it, it's not really then a long term strategy, if you will. It's only the short term success. Yeah. So when this is, nothing happens or it's not happened then of the Olympics or world championship or whatever, all the people as you mentioned are leaving again to home countries or whatever. And then you have the old team again which is not really competitive at the championship. Speaker 3: Exactly. Speaker 2: It's because the situations you mentioned with the fundraising to, to go to make any practice games or practice weekends, for example, there are also some similar situations in Europe and. Yeah, teams are get qualified for official championships, for example, but they're not able to travel to the championship. And they are spot point of view are qualified and not able to go or travel because of the money. So it's ridiculous Speaker 3: As well. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3: It's crazy because they.

We practice hard and then we go to the those championships to qualify. And then, for example, we did one here couple years ago when I came back to the Brazilian national team. We had the world championships: qualifier, and we did it in Brazil. To qualify for Japan. I think it was in Japan for aka. And then we didn't, we qualified, we practiced, we did everything. And then they said that they didn't have money. And then I was like, why did you do it here if you're not gonna take you knew from the beginning that you're not gonna take us. It's impossible that you guys didn't know that you, we didn't have money to go. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And at the end, these are the people who are complaining then that there's no really progress in the development of teams. Yeah. Or results. Yeah. So they would like to have the results, as you said, and they're not really bring the teams to the competition. Speaker 3: Yeah. That's what I asked, like, how do you expect us to give you results if you. Don't do anything about it. It's a process. You, it's not one in one year. It's so many years to, Speaker 2: yeah. Speaker 3: Do something big and something the way you're supposed to do it.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So there has to be some kind of vision strategy, long term strategy. Yes. Already mentioned not really then to have in mind, okay, I would like to have a success in two: years, and now I have to do everything for the tournament in two years. But I would like also to have some kind of success then in four, six or eight years. Strange situation. It's also strange to hear that, that it's, really the number of countries with this kind of situation is growing. Speaker 3: Yeah. It's actually I hear from a lot of other teams that they are actually having to pay for go, to, go to the championships, even from the juniors they have to, if they wanna go, they have to pay, which is, it's crazy because we're also a country that it's, it has a really, it's poor. It's a big part of Brazil. It's poor, so most of the kids, they don't have the money to pay so. So we waste so many talents because maybe there's so many kids here practicing, but they don't have the same opportunity because they don't have the money to do it. And it happens a lot because there is so many, we are a big country.

We have so many young athletes, but that's the: problem. We don't Speaker 2: have, Speaker 3: We don't have the basic the bare minimum. Speaker 2: And money is also one important point. And the other thing is what, from my point of view is really also growing in the last couple of years, is that experienced coaches or players are going to these kind of, let's say poor countries or not really water polar related countries and do their part. To develop the sport also in these areas. Yeah. So maybe this is also for Brazil as the case Yeah. That some of the Yeah. Successful and experiences, coaches and players are really doing their job to make it more popular in other areas. Speaker 3: Yes. I it's something that it's been happening here because I remember back at my time, they brought so many good athletes. I don't remember now because it was like 15 years ago, but I remember they were one of the top athletes at the moment. They brought five different athletes from one from Canada, one from Montenegro. And that was really good because they brought a lot of together so many young athletes, which was me.

And then I: remember it was stuck in my mind like, oh my God, he's so fast. He does it like, I wanna be like him, even though they didn't bring any. Female, other fellow players, they just friends obviously. But it's still that that's what I had. So I was like, oh my gosh, I wanna be like him. But they also, yeah, they also should have done with one, but now they don't do it with anyone. So like they, I don't think they, the last time they brought someone, I think it was the referees for the referees. But no, nothing from athletes outside of Brazil. Speaker 2: Yeah which is, yeah. May maybe then, as you said, so much to missed potential at the end because yeah, there are so many kids running around doing other stuff during these days, but yeah, maybe on their cell phones. Yes. Yeah. Can also be some other alternatives for them, maybe at least to test or to try it. Who knows? Yeah. Regarding the infrastructure let's say infrastructure in Brazil. Brazil we have here in Europe in each of the countries first division, second division, whatever regional regional leagues and tournaments. So how was it in Brazil? With these kind of club structure, if you'll,

Speaker 3 It was more that we had to practice the whole year to play just a couple: games. So basically just the whole year. Practice. And we would play, two championships, like one in the first semester and another in the second semester and would be a week because it would be like just five teams maximum. On the, there's not even a, I don't think there's even a second division because we are just five teams and it's just in Sao Paulo and Rio, and we have. We're such, again, we're such a huge country. And how come there is only two cities in Brazil that are developing water polo? There kind of is some in some other places, but it's really, it's more like amateur. Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's I would assume that it's not really easy to motivate yourself when you do the training and the practice all over the year, and then you have two tournaments in one year. Speaker 3: Yeah. Because then we would practice hard the whole year because Speaker 2: we

Speaker 3 don don't. Okay. We don't: have a game, so just practicing hard hard. Yeah. Which is a good thing. When I went to Europe, I was like, oh my God, we don't have to practice hard every single day. We have games on the weekend, so Speaker 2: yes, Speaker 3: at the end. So Speaker 2: we do not have, and only training, only practice. Speaker 3: We don't have to swim all the time. That's, Speaker 2: yeah, so we, which is to be honest, also a very important point, but a little bit shorter period and of time than of the, let's say more or less only swimming part Speaker 3: because we would swim every day, literally every day. And we would swim so much because we didn't, we never played, so we'd have to keep in shape somehow. So we had to swim. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So you have to be ready then for, you have to train and swim in February to be ready in November. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: Good outlook. You already mentioned that, or we already mentioned that you have also the chance to attend the Olympic games.

I have all these. Attendees of Olympic Games saying, okay, the first time is really overwhelming and so much impact. And more or less I'm not really: able to concentrate myself on the spot I have to do in some situations. How was it for you? So where, which Olympic games do you attend? Was it in Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. So it was at Speaker 2: Home ground. Speaker 3: Yeah. It was. The best experience that an athlete can have. Obviously it was overwhelming, but also I think the fact that we were home at the same time, it was amazing. But we were home, so we were, we felt like home. It was not something. That I knew because it was an area that we knew, a pool that we used to practice. So that helped a little bit, but it was nice also having family and friends there watching you and cheering for you. And it was the hugest crowd I've ever played with. I remember the first game when I walked in. Walked in after the presentation, I was in shock. I was like, oh my God, what am I gonna do?

I was, I froze. And the f funny thing, it was that it was against. Italy. And at the time I: already knew that I would, I wanted to go to Italy after the Olympics, so it was right away. The first game was the, against the team. I was gonna play with. But once you are in the water, you just forget about everything else. Like I didn't hear. No one just after the goals that it was insane. Like they it's, they cheered so loud. The Brazilian crowd is one of the warmest crowd I've I've seen. So even if we were losing by a nice margin of goals it felt like we were winning. Because when we would score, it would, the crowd would go crazy and I was like, oh my God, are we winning? What happened? It's, it was something really. Unforgettable. Speaker 2: Yeah. Do we have any you already told us some special memories, but are there any special memories special emotional moments from these Olympic games you can remember still today? Speaker 3: For sure. The opening ceremony.

Because we were the last team to go in and there was we would enter the stadium from the back doors and, but some of the people that were there to watch, they came to the back door and they started singing the Brazilian national anthem with us. So it's something that,: just talking about it gave me the chills. And then when we went inside, it was like. I didn't know where to look. It was something, it was the best experience, I think. Speaker 2: Perfect. Yeah. So when you enter then the pool, so as you said then maybe it's let's say normal behavior, normal game. Yeah. Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. When you, when once I would say after the first whistle, then it was. Then I was like, okay, water polo game. It's something normal. You're used to it. Just do it. Speaker 2: Yeah. So the most things or the most thrilling emotions are memories from the people I talked to about this topic was really to not, as you said, not really the. Sports related things, but it was the connection with other sports, other people, other countries, other cultures to attend other sports, maybe during the Olympic games. That was really then, yeah the bigger emotional memory than for most of the people. I think that was also maybe then for you, the case.

Speaker 3 Yeah I think also because, we knew it would be hard to win some game also: because back at the time it was just eighteens. So we knew like we're against the best seven teams in the world, it would be really hard. I think also the last game against China that it was, a better game. It was memorable because it was the last game that we were playing together, that team was going to play together. We knew that this team wouldn't be, we wouldn't have this team anymore because some girls were gonna quit. I was gonna go to Italy. So it was a very emotional game for all of us. 'cause I remember that. Very, I scored a goal on the very last second of the game, and then I didn't realize that the game was over. And then I look at the score and then I see it was over. I just start crying, bawling, and then all the girls come together and then we hug each other and then we all start crying together. And they had a they, they were streaming it and then they. Focus on this part. So it's a video that every time I watch it, I cry because it was a really nice moment with my friends.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So at least then the end of these let's say area yeah. Time with this group of people. Yeah. So we have: a nice ending. Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. It was a very nice group of people. Speaker 2: The decision for to move to Italy was really, as you said before, really to get the best improvement of your personal development. Speaker 3: Yeah, because I already had the Italian passport since my grandparents, they came from Italy to Brazil. My dad also played in Italy when he was younger, since I was young, I kind of knew that okay, I wanted to go to study in the United States and then after switch nationalities. But during that time that I had to switch nationalities, it was when I was in the Arizona State University, and then I had to choose between finishing my school, my university, or going to Italy and trying to win a Olympic medal since the, since Italy. At the O Olympics at Rio, they won silver medal.

I was like, oh my God, I have a chance to win a medal. There's not even a second thought. I'm going there. So it was everything was. Like set: up, because also my the coach back at the time Fabio, he spoke with my dad because he, my dad was the assistant coach of the national team, and they knew I had a passport. So everything was organized. Speaker 2: It's already organized. Even not have said, okay I will do it. Yes, Speaker 3: exactly. I was like, okay, your life is gonna be like this. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. So maybe at the end it was not really so bad. Speaker 3: Yeah, Speaker 2: that it was really prepared. Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. Even though we did, after I did this deci, I took the decision of going to Italy and then we didn't qualify for the Olympics. So it was something also hard for me because I was like, oh, damn, I gave up, or my studies and then we didn't even qualify. That was something hard. But how could I know? I have to think oh God, how could I know? I would never know if I didn't try. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So at the moment where you have the chance, the situation was another one. Yeah. So Speaker 3: yeah. Speaker 2: When you moved to Europe, so you played in, in, in which countries so far? So was it only Italy or was it somewhere else?

Speaker 3 The first country I went was to Italy because. Since I wanted to play: with the national team, I had to live there for one year. So I went to play in Messina. Then I also played with Padova. But I played just a couple months since I had I had to do a surgery after a shoulder surgery after my first year with in Italy. And then I didn't recover very well. It was a long surgery, so when I went to Padova, I. Not ready yet. So we decided with the doctor coaches and everything, that it was better if I just came back or do, or stay in Italy and do the rehab, the physio, everything there. Or I could go back home and take care of my shoulder here. And since, it's, I think it's also, it's already not easy being far from the family and friends especially when you're not playing, so you're not doing your what you're supposed to. And then I decided to go back to Brazil and be around family and friends at the time.

And then after when I was ready, I went to Rome. And then after Rome, I stayed, two seasons there. Then we didn't: qualify for the Olympics. Then I went back to Brazil. Then Ulu, that is a team in France invited me. But if after the Olympics that we didn't qualify, I said that. I was like, okay, I'm done. I don't wanna go back to Europe. I wanna be in Brazil. Just play for fun and everything. But then this opportunity came to go to France and I said, okay, it could be a new opportunity, something different. It's not that high level or professional as in Italy, so it could be something more chill for me and see how it goes. But we also played the Champions League. I was not sure if I could still play in the level. Also I'm personally really hard on myself. I think all athletes are, but okay. And then I went there and it went really well and. That was like the opening door to come back to. Play in a professional level.

That was when my coach Marco: called me and said, no, I want to come back to us. And then I was like, okay. For sure, because it's a place that I. I felt like home even far from home Speaker 2: in Italy. So what about the so we already talked about the different yeah. Supportings of the men's and women's team. Are they also in Italy? Which is very.