Fencing Champion Minor Allegedly Raped by Athletes: Controversy and Freedom to Compete

The two athletes investigated for the gang rape of the underage fencing champion "remain free to participate in any fencing competition they want, at least until decisions on the criminal proceedings opened by the Prosecutor's Office of Siena are made". The complaint about the ugly case of violence dates back to August, the day after the events took place in a hotel in Chianciano Terme. A very ugly story that immediately went around the world and on which the spotlight of politics, sports, and civil society remains focused. Just these days, there have been some high-level competitions, and one of the two has voluntarily suspended himself and did not compete (Jacopo Lapo Pucci), while the other (Emanuele Nardella) decided to compete anyway in Lucca, taking the stage at the National Youth and Absolute Trial, valid for qualification to the Italian absolute championships. The president of the Italian Fencing Federation, Paolo Azzi, told Il Messaggero, summing up the contours of the issue. "Given the very delicate circumstances, we, as a Federation, have expressed our opinion to them, highlighting that perhaps it would have been better for both to suspend themselves from the competitions, also for their own protection. Naturally, the decision was up to them, since in this phase the Federation cannot impose anything, there are no conditions for any suspensive provision. The two athletes, in this phase, therefore, are free to compete. For our part, we are waiting for news from the Prosecutor's Office of Siena on a possible precautionary measure. This remains a very sad affair for all of us that greatly saddens us. The facts reported are very serious, serious crimes, however, we must wait for the outcome of the investigations. My thoughts go especially to the girl who I know is living a very heavy situation". The two fencers who allegedly abused Rosa, a fictitious name, on the evening of August 4th: a naturalized Uzbek champion who ended up in the emergency room. The girl the night before with the whole group of athletes had gone to celebrate in a bar in front of the hotel in Chianciano. In the morning she woke up in Nardella and Pucci's room (and a third minor athlete) unable to react, stunned, in pain, full of bruises, bleeding, without remembering anything at all. The night before she had only drunk a beer and two shots and then darkness. The reported athletes, Nardella and Pucci, come from two different clubs. "Nardella," Azzi explains, "has achieved important results even at the international level and is now part of a military sports group. Pucci, on the other hand, does not have those results". The former was born in San Severo, in the province of Foggia, while Pucci in Milan. "The sabre as a discipline is a weapon of combat, which implies a certain determined and combative character, however, I have never heard anything about them, nor has anything been reported to me about their behavior".