Athletes in Poznan: Stefania Toscano and Daniele Stefanoni

Italy’s Stefania Toscano and Daniele Stefanoni are part of their country’s strong adaptive rowing team. They row together in the trunk and arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) and come to the 2009 World Rowing Championships after finishing fourth at last year’s Paralympic Games.

Toscano and Stefanoni have already raced in the heats and repechages and a win in their repechage means that they are through to Saturday’s A-final. World Rowing talked to the duo about their experiences here.

World Rowing: How do you like Poznan?
Stefania Toscano: It’s my first time here, since I don’t travel much outside of rowing. The park here is beautiful and everything is so clean and organised. I also really like the old city centre.
Daniele Stefanoni: I was last in Poland twenty years ago and it really has improved for the better. I really like Poznan, it’s a great place. And I really like it where they put the course, so close to the city and how they set it up. But the water here is very difficult for us – there are waves and it’s quite bumpy.

WR: How did your first races go here at the World Rowing Championships?
DS: The heat was good for us to get a taste of the conditions here. We are not used to waves and the wind was very strong, which made it rather difficult. The repechage went better, but it was challenging too, since we were only third at the 100m mark.

WR: What is your goal here?
ST: It brings bad luck if we say it, I believe.
DS: Yes, the most important thing is that we are here and in the A-final. Now we have to make sure that we don’t make any mistakes.

WR: Are there any frontrunners in your event?
DS: From the results Brazil are definitely the favourites. Ukraine was a bit of a newcomer. Then there are always the Polish and British crews to watch. We always fight with the Polish. I reckon there are five crews running for three medals. But Brazil is at the top of the list.

WR: How did you prepare for these championships?
ST: I hardly had any break after the Paralympics and trained quite a lot.
DS: Yes, this year we only had one training camp together. Also, this year we only got together again in April after not seeing each other for eight months. We trained separately, because it is a bit difficult to get together when you are from two different clubs like we are.

WR: What are your goals after Poznan?
ST: I’m already 50 years old and I’m only planning from one year to the next. If there are better athletes then they will be in the boat, but they will have to beat me first and so far that has not happened. This is also a good motivation not to be lazy and keep training hard.
DS: I agree. Your seat is never secure. And this way you never let yourself go. I will have another Paralympics next year, as I qualified for the Vancouver Olympics in cross-country skiing.

WR: What do you both bring into the boat?
DS: Stefania is much better than me and has done more training than me this year. She is the motivating part in the boat and contributes quite a lot of courage to our team.
ST: Wow thank you, that’s good to hear. I think we complement each other really well. Daniele has got a lot of sport and competition experience in general and is the more tactical one of us two.

WR: Have you noticed any changes in adaptive rowing since they are part of the paralympic programme?
DS: I think the attention has changed. Also within the rowing clubs there’s more respect and slowly but surely they understand that we are also training hard.
ST: In my view also the respect within the national team has changed. We are more part of it all and are being taken more seriously. Even though it’s quite unfortunate that here we are staying in a different hotel than the rest of the Italian team. We do get the same treatment, access to physios, etc., and go training together, but I think it would have been nice to be part of the team not only in the boat park.

WR: When did you start rowing and what motivates you?
ST: I started when I was still in Milan in 2006. Rowing is very important in my life and my passion for this sport is what motivates me.
DS: I only started in 2007. I was asked if I wanted to go to the Paralympics in Beijing and I said yes. I wanted to know what I had to do for it and “learn how to row” was the answer. I had been very active already with cross-country skiing and cycling. I took part in the winter Paralympics in 2006 and had already won three World Championships in cycling. Rowing came at the right time, since I had some problems with my legs and in the double I don’t have to use them. Sport in general was my salvation, otherwise I would have not moved at all anymore. I have a big passion for sport since then and I also like competing – as we say in Italian “la fame viene mangiare”, “you get hungry while eating”.