Naples. “Full light must be shed on the death of the seventeen-year-old who died while training in the pool because it is the second case of its kind that affects a swimmer in the space of a few months, given that in August 2017, in Modena, twenty-three-year-old Mattia Dall'Oglio died”. This was requested by the regional councilor of the Greens, Francesco Emilio Borrelli, collecting the complaint of some parents of young and very young swimmers “concerned about this sudden death that has particularly shocked those who, in various capacities, live the world of swimming”. “At competitions, more and more often, we see extraordinary and surprising results and some doubts arise about how those results are achieved” said a mother who prefers to remain anonymous so as not to harm her son who is a professional athlete. “Beyond this, however, at the moment, in swimming, only one cardiac check is scheduled per year, unlike what happens in other sports where the checks are greater and, given what happened, it could be insufficient” added Borrelli for whom “we need to increase the checks and further deepen them and, at the same time, we need to inform the kids and their families about the risks linked to the use of supplements, even those that are permitted and legal because you can't joke with the lives of kids”.
Mario Riccio, 17, originally from Casalnuovo was training in the pool of the Delphinia Sporting Club when he felt ill. He was a member of the sports association Acquachiara of Pomigliano. The young man was promptly rescued and a defibrillator was also applied to him but there was nothing that could be done.
“I believe that the protocols need to be reviewed because tragedies like the one that happened to Mario yesterday, which do not have the same resonance as that of Astori, are happening more and more often in amateur sports”. Former Italian water polo player Franco Porzio, president of Acquachiara, the sports club to which the 17-year-old who died yesterday in a swimming pool in Caivano after feeling ill while training was a member, expressed concern and asked for more meticulous medical checks. Porzio, this morning, went to visit the young man's parents at home in Casalnuovo. He expressed his grief for what happened: “The parents are devastated – said Porzio – there were the families of all the boys who swam with Mario and his sister, 35-40 boys, our family”. “According to what I was told,” the president of Acquachiara continued, “everything possible was done to revive him, his parents were there too, and now they can’t find peace. Mario would have died instantly, while he was swimming. When he was taken out there was nothing more to be done.” “I believe we can and should do more,” the former Italian water polo champion emphasized, “even if there is a certain amount of uncertainty, we need to learn from these tragedies and work to ensure they never happen again.” In the next few hours, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of North Naples should set the date for the autopsy on the boy, whose body was transferred yesterday to the Second Polyclinic of Naples: thanks to those investigations, it will be possible to shed light on what happened.
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