“Diving into the pool reminds me of the sensation of being wrapped […], a tender embrace that consoles me at the end of a tiring day.”
You see the cover of a book, you understand roughly what the book might be about, and then you put it back on the shelf, because you think the topic is not interesting. This is what usually happens with books written by athletes, especially if they are about sports considered secondary. This is a common mistake, which perhaps we have also made in the past, but fortunately it was not the case with Cristina Chiuso’s literary debut.
Before reading it we knew nothing about swimming, only small notions and curiosities that were wet every four years with the Olympics. Now we know a little more, but this is not the merit of the book, rather its ability to accompany the reader to the discovery of a parallel world like that of swimming and then to the discovery of themselves.
Through her personal experiences over the years, from when she first approached a new sport to when she competed with the best in the world, the author talks about what it meant for her to pursue a dream, and how sport made her blossom as an athlete and as a person. Perhaps this aspect makes the text particularly suitable for the younger ones, regardless of their sporting inclination, because they can see a lot of their youthful world in it, starting from the relationship with their parents, coaches and the group of friends that they gradually meet during the journey of life.
Important: although there are many memories of the author experienced first-hand, it is not an autobiography, but rather a story about how the “tribes” are formed and kept together (you will understand during the reading what we are referring to).
We really liked the passages that tell the story of some key moments in swimming, the evolution of styles and regulations, and also the initial scientific study on how water is a child-friendly element, perhaps a natural habitat from which everything is done to keep them away.
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Cristina Chiuso, Con la testa sott’acqua, Add editore, Torino, 2025