Italian fencer Valentina Vezzali, one of the most successful athletes in the history of the Olympics, said yesterday she was going to retire at the age of 42.
“There is a time for everything and I think this is the right time to take off my [fencing] mask, hang up my foil and start a new beginning,” Vezzali said in a video posted on her Facebook account.
Italy’s Fencing Federation said Vezzali would play her last match against China in today’s quarter-finals of the Team World Championships in Rio de Janeiro.
In Olympic Summer Games from 1996 to 2012, Vezzali won 6 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.
In 2013, she ran in the Italian general elections for a centrist list headed by then-premier Mario Monti, and was elected to the lower house of parliament.
Valentina Vezzali,
