03 May 2021
Filippo Mondelli; a battle until the end
In the prime of his rowing career, 2018 World Rowing Champion Filippo Mondelli has succumbed to cancer at the age of 26. After routinely complaining of pain near his knee to the Italian Olympic Committee doctor Antonio Spataro, Mondelli was sent for an MRI and diagnosed with stage four osteosarcoma bone cancer in his left leg just over a year ago.
Rowing was a major part of his life from an early age. Growing up in Northern Italy, Mondelli came from a rowing family and began rowing at the age of 13 while his grandfather was president of a rowing club on Lake Como. World Rowing interviewed Mondelli when cancer was still a new part of his life. Mondelli described his first experiences with rowing; “Everything started as a game, but then it became a passion and a job, for the Fiamme Gialle (sports section of the Italian police force) in Italy. Above all the passion that I always carry in my heart.”
Mondelli worked his way through junior rowing and on to the Italian national team. In 2017 he struck gold at the European Rowing Championships in the men’s double sculls and followed this up with gold in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 2018 World Rowing Championships.
“The first World Championship win is always a beautiful thing,” Mondelli described. “We started as favourites on that occasion, but the heat didn’t go well. And then we gave everything we had to win the final. I only really realised that I was a World Champion two days after the race.” The young Italian then went on to help qualify the Italian men’s quad for the Tokyo Olympics with a third-place finish at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
Mondelli was on his way to competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but realised he had to change course to fight the cancer. “Winning this battle will be my Olympics,” he said with his talk then turning his plans to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. His motto became; “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
Tributes from the rowing world have been flowing in for Mondelli and from the words of the Italian Rowing Federation; “One year, three months and 16 days after the discovery of the serious illness, we must give the news that we never wanted to give in life: Pippo didn’t make it.”
“It will be us, along with all those who appreciated his passion for life and for rowing, to remain in respectful silence for the serious loss that hit his family and the entire national rowing and sports community.”