CERRUTI Linda

General
DUET PARTNER
She has been competing in duet events alongside fellow Italian artistic swimmer Costanza Ferro since age six. The pair competed together at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and placed fifth at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Republic of Korea. "The most difficult exercise is duet because it is somewhere between the team and individual events. It requires harmony in movement and an extraordinary emotional charge, equal to what is needed for the individual. I have performed with Costanza Ferro practically since I started and today we are more than friends. We are more than sisters. I feel as close to her as if we were Siamese twins, connected to each other by an invisible piece of flesh, muscle or skin, which allows us to listen without speaking to each other. Sometimes she is behind me, says nothing, yet I can feel with certainty what she is thinking. This thing cannot be explained." (SportsDeskOnline, 24 Jun 2021; it.eurosport.com, 30 Dec 2019; rarinantes.sv.it, 23 May 2019)

EARLY DAYS
She considered quitting the sport as a teenager but was persuaded to continue by her mother. "Sometimes I thought about leaving. I thought about it but never said it, because saying it would make it true, and I never wanted it to be true. Around the age of 14 all my friends were summoned to the national training camps, but I was not. Never. I trained all those hours, but I didn't go with my friends. I struggled when I had to stay behind at school and I never got called up. I thought to myself, 'Why do I do it then?' The coach always said that I had the potential, but this was not enough. I talked about it with my mum who was very good at supporting me. She said, 'Hold on, you'll see that it will get better. However do not think that if you stay at home I will let you go out whenever you want every afternoon'. She made it sound quite simple and the following year I definitely blossomed." (it.eurosport.com, 30 Dec 2019)

TELEVISION APPEARANCE
In October 2017 she appeared on the Italian television show 'Big Brother' as an instructor alongside her artistic swimming duet partner Costanza Ferro. The pair prepared the show's contestants for an artistic swimming competition. (ivg.it, 13 Oct 2017)