Swimming - Team Italy

General
Italy secured their place in Tokyo with one of the four fastest times among teams that did not qualify at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju. They narrowly missed out on qualifying in Gwangju, where the top 12 teams claimed berths for the 2020 Olympic Games, and Italy were the 13th-fastest team in the heats.

The Italian team have competed at the last four Olympic Games and have made 11 total appearances since 1960. Their highest rank at the Games came on home soil and on debut at the 1960 Games in Rome, and since 1976 they have only qualified for the final once - in 2008 in Beijing, where they were disqualified in the elite race. At Rio 2016, they did not make the final after swimming the 11th-fastest time in the heats.

Italy have also never won a medal at the world championships, with the closest they have come to the podium an 11th-place finish at the 1991 edition.

They arrive in Japan for the Olympic Games having won bronze at the European championships in May 2021, when they joined the Russian Federation and winners Great Britain on the podium in Budapest. They swam 3:29.93 to claim third, which was the time that proved fast enough to earn them a place in Tokyo.