Diletta Giampiccolo

Diletta Giampiccolo

Personal information
Full name	Diletta Giampiccolo
Nationality	Italy
Born	27 July 1974 Catania, Italy
Height	1.56 m (5 ft 1 ^1⁄2 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Sport
Sport	Wrestling
Style	Freestyle
Club	Polisportiva Mandraccio[1]
Coach	Lucio Caneva[1]
Medal record Women's freestyle wrestling Competitor for  Italy Mediterranean Games 2001 Tunis 62 kg 2005 Almería 59 kg World Championships 2001 Martigny 62 kg European Championships 1998 Bratislava 56 kg 1999 Götzis 62 kg 2005 Varna 59 kg

Diletta Giampiccolo (born July 27, 1974 in Catania) is a retired amateur Italian freestyle wrestler, who competed in the women's lightweight category.^[2] Considered one of Europe's top female freestyle wrestlers in her decade, Giampiccolo has claimed two gold medals at the Mediterranean Games (2001 and 2005), scored a silver in the 62-kg division at the 2001 World Wrestling Championships in Martigny, France, and also finished tenth at the 2004 Summer Olympics, representing her nation Italy. Throughout her sporting career, Giampiccolo trained full-time for Polisportiva Mandraccio Wrestling Club in Genoa, under her personal coach Lucio Caneva.^[1]

Giampiccolo reached sporting headlines at the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunis, Tunisia, where she picked up the gold medal in the women's 62 kg class. Two months later, she captured the silver in the same class at the World Championships in Martigny, France, losing out to China's Meng Lili by a 3–0 verdict.^[3] Her sporting success continued to flourish at the next two World Championships, but she left both tournaments empty handed with mediocre results.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Giampiccolo qualified for the Italian squad in the women's 55 kg class. Earlier in the process, she finished second from the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tunis, Tunisia to guarantee her place on the Italian wrestling team.^[4][5] She lost two straight matches each to China's Sun Dongmei with a 2–4 decision, and eventual Olympic champion Saori Yoshida of Japan on technical superiority that left her on the bottom of the prelim pool, placing eleventh in the final standings. With Puerto Rico's Mabel Fonseca being disqualified for failing the doping test on stanozolol, Giampiccolo upgraded her position to tenth.^[6]

In 2005, Giampiccolo campaigned her title defense in the women's lightweight category (59 kg) at the Mediterranean Games in Almería, Spain to cap off her sporting career, overpowering the host nation's Seba Jimenez in the process.^[7]

References

1. "CONI Profile – Diletta Giampiccolo" (in Italian). Italian National Olympic Committee. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
2. "Diletta Giampiccolo". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
3. "Aanes tok VM-bronse" [Aanes took the bronze at World Champs] (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. 25 November 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
4. Abbott, Gary (17 July 2004). "Olympic Games preview at 55 kg/121 lbs. in women's freestyle". USA Wrestling (The Mat). Retrieved 29 September 2013.
5. "Diletta Giampiccolo verso Atene" [Diletta Giampiccolo goes to Athens] (in Italian). Corriere del Trentino. 15 March 2004. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
6. "Wrestling: Women's Freestyle 55kg". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 15 August 2004. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
7. "Italia, altre 4 medaglie d'oro" [Italy claims four more gold medals] (in Italian). Corriere del Trentino. 5 July 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2014.

External links

• Profile – International Wrestling Database