BIAGIOLI Cecilia

General
MOTHERHOOD
She says she has found combining swimming and motherhood difficult at times, but that her son Joaquin has served as extra motivation to continue competing. "In 2013 I had Joaco and after having him I asked myself if I could continue being an athlete because I didn't want to put aside his upbringing, I wanted to always be present. It was hard to get back to performing at a high level and nowadays it's hard to travel, it's not easy. Joaquin is six [speaking in 2019], he understands me, he knows what I do and that helps a lot. Now he is older, he understands what mum is doing and gives me encouragement to continue, he motivates me." (tycsports.com, 30 Sep 2019, 21 May 2020)

SWITCH TO OPEN WATER SWIMMING
She competed in the pool at three consecutive editions of the Olympic Games between 2000 and 2008, before deciding to take up open water swimming due to motivational issues. She began training with her brother Claudio following the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with a view to focusing on open water swimming, and competed in both the pool and open water at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. "In Beijing [2008 Games] it was quite difficult. I arrived at a time of stagnation and with a lack of motivation. I could not find the way to continue growing. Open water swimming was a little complicated in the beginning due to the sibling relationship. But we both grew up and I began competing in open water. It was not a good experience at first because I had not thought about taking it up, but then I got hooked and began competing up until 2011 when I started having good results. I qualified in 10km [open water] for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and later I made the qualifying standard for the 800m freestyle [pool] with a national record. The nice thing about open water swimming is that many things happen during a race." (tycsports.com, 21 May 2020)

OLYMPIC FAMILY
The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will be a family affair for her, as she will travel to Japan with her brother Claudio as her coach, as well as her sister Romina, who will represent Argentina in triathlon. "Romi was able to qualify before [me] and I was missing, so I had a little bit of pressure! But we finally made it happen. It's a dream that comes true, the three of us will be in Tokyo, it's incredible. And also this time I'm going to the Games being a mother, that has even more value." (argentina.gob.ar, 23 Jun 2021)

At age 15 years and 263 days, she was the youngest member of the Argentinian team across all sports at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. (tv10cordoba YouTube.com, 28 Feb 2019; SportsDeskOnline, 29 Jul 2019)