Giorgia Marcomin

Happy birthday to Italy’s hurdler Giorgia Marcomin, who has been at the same club since she was six years old.

Giorgia joined Atletica OSA Saronno in 2008 as an Esordiente, the smallest category Italian athletics has, and she is still there eighteen years later. In that time she has been Italian U20 indoor champion over 60m hurdles, taken Italian silvers and bronzes at U20 and U23 level indoors and out, worn the azzurro at the European U20 Championships in Tallinn, the World U20 Championships in Nairobi, and the European U23 Championships in Espoo, and made the final of the 400m hurdles at the Italian Absolute Championships.

She is a genuine three-event hurdler, which almost nobody is. Her bests read 8.41 over 60m hurdles, 13.55 over 100m hurdles and 58.25 over 400m hurdles, and in 2026 she has been within touching distance of all three: 8.49 indoors at Ancona, a 13.90 win at Turin in June, and 58.82 at Bologna in July. The sprint hurdles and the 400m hurdles are effectively different sports that happen to share an obstacle. One is a rhythm event run at maximum speed; the other is a 400m runner’s event with barriers arriving when the legs have stopped cooperating. Being competitive in both takes two separate technical educations.

She also finished the other half of it. Giorgia graduated from the Università Cattolica in Milan in Media Languages through the university’s Dual Career programme for student-athletes, and the university published a public congratulation when she did. She is now doing a master’s in digital communications at the same institution, which means the woman running 400m hurdles is training to work in the industry that writes about people running 400m hurdles.

Buon compleanno, Giorgia! Cento di questi giorni, e che ogni barriera del prossimo anno arrivi al momento giusto. Auguri! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇮🇹