At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics curling mixed doubles competition, the Italian team appeared a dark horse. This is the high-looking female player Stefania Constantini.
What's even more incredible is that the 99-year-old sister is not a professional athlete, and her job in Italy is a salesman in a sporting goods store
Some people think that the appearance of this little sister actually has monica Bellucci, an Italian national treasure with points.
Monica Bellucci
Stephania
It's really the initial "hard" mode and then all the way to the end of life!
Stefania, 22, was born on April 15, 1999, in PIEVE DI CADORE, Italy.
Her mother was an elementary school teacher and her father was a worker. She has two brothers, the younger brother is in college and the older brother works in a clothing store.
Stefania's father loved hockey when he was young, and he played well, which can be said to have a family sports gene.
As working families, raising three children is not easy, but parents who love sports are very supportive of their children's participation in sports activities.
Swimming, playing tennis, and skiing are all sports that Stephania loves since she was a child, and in addition to sports, hip-hop dancing is also one of her hobbies.
Curling was at the age of 8, the little friend invited her to play curling together, who could have imagined that it was this invitation that made little Stephania fall in love with the sport.
Compared to swimming and skiing, which are single-player sports, curling makes Stefania feel the joy of competition and interaction.
Over time, Stephania's attention was focused on curling, while other projects slowly withdrew from her area of interest.
At first curling existed only as a hobby, and Stephania did not start systematic professional training from an early age like other professional athletes. When she went to school, she majored in accounting, and this choice may also be to find a stable job.
However, Stefania did not immediately look for a job after graduation, but spent a year focusing on curling learning and training.
This year's focus is also inseparable from the full support of parents, who always believe in their daughter and support her choice.
Part-time work is livelihood, curling is true love
The path to becoming a professional curler is not a one-size-fits-all path. Although Stephania achieved good results in curling competitions, these honors made it difficult for her to make a living.
Curling is a niche sport in Italy, and women's curling started late in Italy. Before Stefaniah, there were almost no professional female players in Italy going abroad on this project, which naturally made it difficult to attract the attention of sponsors.
The strong stefaniah herself is not willing to "nibble the old" for love, and finally chooses to find a job to earn living expenses and use her spare time to train.
Luckily, Stephania met a "good Italian boss". When competitions and closed training require leave of absence, the boss is fully supportive.
Still, Stefania's training time is greatly compressed compared to that of a full-time athlete, not to mention that she spends most of her day at work.
Going to work and training took up almost all of the girl's time, and ShengSheng forced the flower fairy into a time management expert.
She wakes up very early every day and trains in the gym. Looking at the time, I almost had to rush to the store to work, and I couldn't rest after a whole day of work, and I had to use the time to complete the training.
During this time, Stephania also found time to run to the stadium for the necessary ice training.
If this kind of year-round giving is not from the heart of love, I am afraid that few people can bear it.
Frequent leave of absence, delays in the return flight of the game, and having to let colleagues replace her shifts have brought Stefania a lot of hardships, and she has to face the dissatisfaction of her colleagues.
But Stephania didn't complain, and for the sake of her love and dreams, she persevered.
The turning point in Stephania's athletic path was her joining the FiammeOro club. This allowed her to devote herself to curling without having to worry about taking time off and shifting shifts.
In fact, we all have some of our own loves in our hearts, and sometimes under the pressure of reality, we have to temporarily hide our dreams in our hearts, and over time they gradually turn into regrets.
Stephania gives us a hope, for the love of the heart, as long as you are willing to take action, eliminate distractions, dare to try, maybe a miracle will happen tomorrow.
The dream of winning the Winter Olympics in Beijing comes true
Stephania's entry into the arena of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is a milestone for the Italian curling project.
In May 2021, she and teammate Amos Mosana finished fifth at the Scottish Mixed Doubles World Championships and won direct qualification for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
She was the first Italian to qualify for the Olympics and the only female athlete on the Italian curling mixed doubles team.
"My biggest dream has always been to play in the Olympics," Stephania said in an interview. "This year, I'm finally going to make my dream come true!"
Stefania may not have thought that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics not only made her dream of participating in the Olympic Games come true, but also allowed her and her teammates to charge all the way to victory, brushing off sweden and other international strong teams, and winning the gold medal.
Stefania's success, like Gu Ailing, is another beautiful inspirational story in the history of the Winter Olympics, and we wish them a more exciting life in the future!