Browse all

More Than - Tommaso Marini

Dreaming Gold

More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold

Tommaso Marini

Dreaming Gold

 
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492355
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492340

D'Hubert and Feraud begin to duel for trivial reasons in early 19th century Strasbourg, and from then on they will carry wounds to their bodies and pride for the rest of their lives, until those mysterious and legendary duels between them in Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Joseph Conrad's novel "The Duellists" not only tells of two lieutenants of the hussars (soldiers of the light cavalry) who are prepared to give their lives for the emperor, but also of the fact that the duel is perhaps the most psychological of all confrontations. It is the oldest form of confrontation in which a trophy is at stake, be it a meter of land, the blessing of the gods or a gold medal. Today it is no longer permitted to duel with swords on the streets of the city, but until less than a century ago Italian intellectuals did so to defend their literary and philosophical ideas. The sword fight between Giuseppe Ungaretti and the surrealist writer Massimo Bontempelli, which took place in the garden of Pirandello's house at the beginning of August 1926, is legendary. Today, the epic of these clashes is only present in the world of sport, although fencing is still one of the most popular disciplines. The D'Huberts and Ferauds no longer exist; they have been replaced by elegant and combative athletes. The strongest of these is Tommaso Marini, world champion in men's foil and the new star of More Than.

More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492315
Shirt DSQUARED2, jacket and trousers NIKE, tie DSQUARED2.
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492314
Shirt DSQUARED2, jacket and trousers NIKE, tie DSQUARED2.
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492312
Shirt DSQUARED2, jacket and trousers NIKE, tie DSQUARED2.

We meet Marini halfway through a challenging year, seven months after his shoulder surgery and still five months away from his dream of a medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. In a very decoubertine way, Tommaso Marini explains how he is experiencing this time: "An athlete must be proud of the sacrifices he makes beyond the results. I'm tired of hearing the usual athletes saying that they train ten hours a day, we all do, even those who finish last, the difference is the way you deal with what you do." The Gruppo sportivo Fiamme Oro Olympian insists on the importance and his own role as an athlete as he looks out at the empty theater stage where nss filmed this episode of More Than. The reigning world champion in the men's foil mainly traces the difference between "talent" and "worker"," between these two different personalities and paths that must find a way to unite in the same goal. On the one hand, the rigid and proud strategist D'Hubert, on the other, the action, instinct and loneliness of Feraud. "I recognize myself in talent, but it's not better or worse. The talented athlete is the one who, in a way, creates the most problems, because he is usually more undisciplined or uses talent to compensate for mistakes that are more obvious to the worker. The thought pattern of us talented athletes is more complicated."

My mother was a model and my father had a showroom. Today, fashion is seen as something elitist, but for me it was normal to wear beautiful things to express myself.
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492336
My mother was a model and my father had a showroom. Today, fashion is seen as something elitist, but for me it was normal to wear beautiful things to express myself.
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492338

In a sport where the psychological component is so important to the final outcome of the competition, Tommaso Marini tells how he has been able to define his role as an athlete not only through victories, but also through a broad perspective on fencing: "There are my colleagues who live for sport, but I'm not like that. I've learned that the sport has to be behind me, not me behind it. That's the best way for me to perform and I try to focus on other aspects of my life." He then continues: "I used to have the idea that Tommaso had to be a serious person in fencing, the perfect athlete, while I can be more outgoing outside. Now I try to find a balance between these two souls, both during the competition and outside, and it works. Tommaso Athlete and Tommaso human are one and the same person. This has helped me because I used to think I was more confident inside the platform, but in recent years I've realized that I'm more confident outside. The results have helped me find balance and strength, but I think in sport you need a method that works in every moment of your life."

As he speaks, Tommaso arranges his rings, then his earrings, then his rings again, and in response to his passion for accessories he says: "In competition we are all dressed the same, but I always look the best" (laughter, ed.). However, his attention to fashion is not only evident in the ease with which he switches between Diesel coats, Versace looks and Nike sneakers, but also in the fact that he knows exactly how this world works, which can be traced back to his family history. "My mother was a model and my father was a salesman, he even had a showroom. It was all quite normal for me. Today, fashion is seen as something elitist, but for me it was normal to choose beautiful things to wear. Over time, I've reinterpreted my relationship with fashion, using it as a form of expression rather than something I can't put into words. So it's easier to express moods or whatever I want to perceive."

More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492313
Full look VERSACE.
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492316
Full look VERSACE.

The elegance and composure with which he wears the More Than look seem to present us with a person who has a different energy to the vigorous one we see on the platform. Tommaso describes himself as "a very dynamic person who loves change and hates stable things". He explains that his connection to movement and action means that he tires easily and never has a set style. It seems to feel tight to be in Tommaso Marini's shoes, and he explains how he finds anything that allows him to break out of the box incredibly appealing, so art, music, theater and cinema, which he is a fan of, whether new or old films, comedies or art films, which he watches in the cinema or at home on the couch, pastimes he fits in between his many training sessions, "I have little free time, unfortunately."

Because of these interests - cinema, art and fashion - Tommaso Marini has always had a connection to Milan, a city to which he came with his parents during fashion weeks and to which he often returns. "I love Milan very much, I've been going there since I was a child because my parents always took me. I have come to love the city and I could imagine living there, maybe in the future it will become my city" Marini seems to consider many aspects of her life, from the possibility of moving to Milan to her sporting successes. On the other hand, the geography of fencing has changed a lot in recent years, as have the opponents and the unpredictability of the sport: "There are at least five other states at our level that didn't exist before. I was born in a time when there were a lot of other strong athletes, so I'm used to it, but compared to the past, the foil medal is no longer a sure thing. The top 25 in the world are all very strong and you can easily lose to them, so the "ass" factor is also crucial, especially in combat sports. There are so many things that happen by surprise, unpredictability is something we have to train for, but it remains an unknown until the time of the competition."

Preparing for the Olympics is slowly becoming a game of nerves, the months don't seem to pass and at the same time there seems to be less and less time, the scales in his shoulder have distracted Tommaso from thinking, but now he hopes they will come as soon as possible, as he confesses. "I have to be patient, even if it's not my best gift."

After talking to Tommaso, you might get the feeling that dueling doesn't require you to be either a D'Hubert or a Feraud, but rather a bit of both, feeding off the challenge on the platform as motivation and a source of vital energy. In this definition of himself as an athlete, one aspect that seems to be fundamental for Marini is imagination: "You can't put limits on yourself, I've always imagined myself achieving great things, but I've also had people who didn't believe in me and that could be a limitation. The thinking of others can create limits, while I think it's important to defend your own path and identity, of course the goals have to be achievable, for example I could never win Sanremo." Dream and reason, possibility and calculation - the way Marini lives his role as an athlete is fascinating, characterized by opposites, in a game of defense and attack. Perhaps that is why he is world champion and is waiting for new duels in France, exactly where D'Hubert and Feraud fought for honor and eternal glory.

More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492305
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492306
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492307
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492308
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492309

 

Photographer: Marco P. Valli
Ph. Assistant: Andrea Nicotra
Stylist: Simone Rutigliano
Stylist Assistant: Pietro Cavallari
Make Up: Carolina Antonini
Interview: Tommaso Berra
Special thanks: Cineteatro Stella

More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492518
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492515
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492514
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492513
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492512
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492341
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492339
More Than - Tommaso Marini Dreaming Gold | Image 492322