Water Polo - Interview with Italian World Champion Roberto Calcaterra

Roberto, tell us about water polo and why you love it so much?

Water polo is a tough sport that, if we can compare it to a sport played on dry-land, is probably akin to rugby. It is a sport that doesn’t lead to fame and fortune, so you play it for the love of the game and that’s exactly why I play it too. It is a tough team game in which you have to struggle and fight, both as an individual and as a team. It is not enough just to swim; you need to battle physically with your opponent and then have the clarity of mind to work with your team and score goals. It is a sport that requires a lot, but it gives you a lot too: it teaches you about sacrifice, commitment and fighting to the bitter end. It conveys discipline, team spirit and brings you together as a team. All of this then helps you in life and in the working world, where you will face difficult situations that put you to the test, yet water polo has taught me to always go forward.

Can you tell us any particular memories from your playing career?

In truth I have many anecdotes about my experiences, games and victories. The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta in which we won the bronze medal certainly remains clear in my mind. Although we were favourites, due to some mis-fortune we didn’t reach the gold-medal final that year and we played in the third place playoff instead. The victory in that bronze medal match was in jeopardy because with just a few minutes to play we were losing by 4 goals, a huge margin to recover in a sport like water polo! Yet, we did it! We clawed our way back into the match and we won in the last minute, everyone on our staff leapt from the bench into the water to celebrate with us.

However, time wasn’t up, there were 2 hundredths of a second left. The judges gave a penalty to the opponents who scored and forced us to play another 2 periods of extra time! It was a dramatic, never-ending game that will always stay in my mind: we felt like we had lost; then we recovered and thought we had won; then we had 2 agonising periods of extra time to win an Olympic medal. I have a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth when I think of those Olympics, we really had so many chances to get the gold and instead we almost blew our chance of getting bronze.

Tell us about your coaching activity and your camps.

I am very proud of my business and what I have created after finishing my career as a player. Instead of choosing to join a club I decided to create my own thing, planning events and training camps. The development has so far involved 3,500 boys. We have several events to offer: highly specialised summer centres for water polo as well as multidisciplinary camps, organised together with friends of mine who are top technicians in their field, such as swimming, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and other disciplines.

During the winter season there are also a host of events, such as the tournament that bears my name called the "Calcaterra Challange", a water polo competition for U14 boys, a benchmark at Italian National level, in which all the strongest clubs with all the strongest players in Italy take part. I also travel all over Italy organising 3 day or 4 day training camps in different clubs.

I have also created my own brand of technical products that are part of the merchandising at tournaments, training camps and events, such as sportswear and other materials for water polo.