Simona Quadarella (Italian pronunciation: [kwadaˈrɛlla]; born 18 December 1998) is an Italian swimmer. She specializes in long distance freestyle events. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won a bronze medal in Women's 800 metre freestyle,[1] and at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, won the gold medal in the 1500 m freestyle, and the silver medal in the 800 m freestyle.[2]
Quadarella competed in the women's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships,[3][4] winning the bronze medal.[5] After her international explosion, which took place in 2017 at the age of 19, Simona Quadarella won 9 international medals in the two-year period 2017-2018 (7 gold and 2 bronze), including a trio of gold medals at the 2018 European Aquatics Championships in 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m freestyle.[3] Than in July 2019, Quadarella won her first world title at the World Championships in Gwangju, taking gold in the 1500 m in a time of 15:40.89.[2] She also won a silver medal in the 800 m race in a time of 8:14.99.
At the European Championships in Budapest 2020, held in May 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quadarella won three gold medals (400 m, 800 m, 1500 m freestyle - the same feat achieved three years earlier in Glasgow 2018) and a bronze medal in the 4x200m freestyle.[6] In July 2021, at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which were also postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, she won the bronze medal in the 800 metre freestyle with a time of 8:18.35.[7]
For the 1500 metre freestyle at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, Quadarella placed fifth with a time of 16:03.84, finishing over 14 seconds behind bronze medalist Lani Pallister of Australia.[8][9] She followed her performance up with a bronze medal-winning time of 8:19.00 in the 800 metre freestyle four days later.[10][11]
At the 2022 European Aquatics Championships, held two months later in Rome, Quadarella won the gold medal in the 800 metre freestyle with a time of 8:20.54.[12][13][14] The title was her third-consecutive in the 800 metre freestyle at LEN European Aquatics Championships and was the first time a female swimmer achieved the title in the event three times in a row.[15] Three days later, she won the gold medal in the 1500 metre freestyle with a time of 15:54.15.[16][17] The win marked her third-consecutive gold medal in the event at LEN European Aquatics Championships.[18] Her medal also brought her total number of gold medals won at LEN European Aquatics Championships to eight, setting a new record for the most gold medals won by a female Italian swimmer over the course of their career at the Championships.[19] The final day, she won the silver medal in the 400 metre freestyle, finishing behind gold medalist Isabel Marie Gose of Germany with a time of 4:04.77.[20][21]
| Year | Championships | 400 fs | 800 fs | 1500 fs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | World Championships (LC) | 
| ||
| Universiade |  |
| ||
| European Championships (SC) | |
|||
| 2018 | Mediterranean Games | |
|
|
| European Championships (LC) | |
|
| |
| World Championships (SC) |  |
|||
| 2019 | World Championships (LC) | |
| |
| European Championships (SC) | |
|
||
| 2021 | European Championships (LC) | |
|
|
| Olympic Games |
|
|||
| European Championships (SC) | |
| ||
| 2022 | World Championships (LC) | |
||
| European Championships (LC) | |
|
|
