Vincenza Calì

Vincenza Calì was an Italian sprinter. In her youth she played basketball in middle school and later, at the age of 13 in 1996, discovered athletics and sprinting thanks to professor Paolo Pecora. At the beginning of her international career, she missed the finals at the Youth Worlds 1999 in Bydgoszcz and at the Junior Worlds 2000 in Santiago, both by a few hundredths of a second. In 2002 she improved the Italian junior record in the 200 metres to 23.25, which allowed her to be 4th at the Kingston World Under-20 Championships.

Calì’s career was plagued with numerous physical problems. She suffered a slipped disk in 2003, with trouble in the spine and tendinitis, and in 2004 had a motorcycle crash just prior to joining the club Fiamme Azzurre, where she experienced good results, but missed participating at the Athens Olympics. For two consecutive years (2004-05) she won both the 100 and 200 metres at the Italian national championships and in 2005 took two bronze medals at the Under-23 Europeans at Erfurt. Inactive in 2006 due to a fracture in one foot and severe back pain, she moved to Roma for training in the sport facility of her military club, after a surgical operation and a period of training with Francesco Di Mulo in Catania. There she met Giorgio Frinolli, national trainer, two-time Olympian (reserve in 1996 and participant in 2000) in the 400 metres hurdles and son of Roberto, twice Olympic finalist in the same event.

In 2008, after setting her personal best in the 100 m. with 11.35 (Milano, 2 July), Calì was finally able to compete at the Olympics in the 200 m (second round) and in the 4x100 m. relay, where she failed to reach the final. A few days after Beijing, on 7 September 2008, she set a personal record in the 200 m. with 22.98, the third Italian woman in history to finish the race in under 23 seconds.

Calì took two medals at the 2009 Mediterranean Games, held in Italy, and silver in the 200 m. at the national championships held in Milano and won by the Olympian Giulia Arcioni. After marriage and maternity (2012), she had a national comeback on the track in 2014 (after almost five years) in a Sicilian regional race in the 400 metres. During her international career (2002-09) she earned a total of 13 caps.

Personal Bests: 100 – 11.35 (2008); 200 – 22.98 (2008).