Is Nino Pizzolato Ready for the Olympics? Preparation Secrets!

With just 3 weeks left till the start of the Summer Olympics Games, Nino Pizzolato and the Italian Weightlifting team are entering the last phase of preparation. In order to learn more about how he approaches his training, as well as give him some tips, our team here at Torokhtiy Media, along with our founder Oleksiy Torokhtiy paid him a visit in Rome, where we spent a few days. 

On the very first day, as can be expected, our morning started with the usual croissant and coffee – a staple Italian breakfast that Nino still enjoys, even if it’s just a few weeks before the start of the biggest competition in our sport.

However, after enjoying our meal in a cafe in Rome, we found that it was not enough for a strenuous workout, so we had another one and headed to the training center. 

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Our main goal for the day was to spend some time training with Nino, Italy’s representative in the 89 kg category, and see how his preparations for the Olympic Games in Paris are going.

After winning a Bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics, Nino is now preparing to reach even higher during the ones in Paris, but he shares that there’s a huge difference between these two editions of the Games, mainly due to his age and his physical condition during the last year.

Let’s now take a look at how Nino approaches his training days now. 

09:00 am

Time for a trip to the grocery store before heading to the gym. Eating healthy and at the same time, consuming enough calories is vital for weightlifters, so it was a priority to get Nino the right amount of food before starting the training day. 

10:30 am 

Start of the first training session of the day. Oleksiy and Nino began the training day by doing several sets of back squats. The goal was to reach 210 kg for two reps and then continue from there – in the end, Oleksiy managed to complete two reps of 270 kg, and Nino continued and stopped at one rep of 280 kg. 

After reaching the one rep max, Nino and his coaching team started dropping the weight down for four repetitions from 280 kg to 230 kg. Then, for the last movement of the morning practice, Nino performed some snatch pulls before heading to lunch.

When it comes to his Olympic goals, Nino shared with us that he hopes to come home with another medal, and he’s ready to do everything needed to reach that goal. With that said the Italian acknowledged how difficult that would be, considering the competition he would be up against and the importance of the event. 

As for his training secrets, Pizzolato only mentioned two – training hard and listening to your coaches, as even the person with the best genetics for weightlifting cannot succeed without a good team and a determination to work every day despite the difficulties. 

13:00 

Lunch was also a perfect time to talk about Nino’s goals when it comes to his numbers for the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. The Italian is now working on reaching 178 – 180 kg on the Snatch, while Oleksiy advised him to work to reach 176 kg at the bare minimum to reach the podium and he can aim for more from there.

For Clean & Jerk, Nino specified that he would aim for 210 – 215 kg on the first attempt to be able to reach a medal spot and then from there, place his next attempts according to how his competitors are performing. 

As we headed back to the hotel, we discussed the recovery times he takes after heavy workouts, and Nino shared he typically needs around seven days to fully recover from an intense Clean & Jerk session. 

17:00

For his second workout of the day, Nino focused on doing the power snatch, while Oleksiy did the full one with a goal of reaching 80% of their one rep max. 

Even though the Italian weightlifting team typically trains twice a day during the week, during the weekend, they spend time enjoying different activities, and this week, we were able to attend a motorsports race with them thanks to Alfredo, who used to work in racing but is now the FIPE Communication and Marketing Director.

Of course, to end the day, we had a discussion about the Clean & Jerk, as we talked to Nino about why he chose a split jerk over a power jerk. 

At dinner, our team at Torokhtiy media, along with some members of Italy weightlifting, enjoyed some typical Italian cuisine and talked more about weightlifting, and we got Nino to share that he has no preference between the back and the front squat, as he feels he does well on both, and that his must-watch events are the 102 kg and the 73 kg category. 

Our last visit before leaving Rome was with Nino to the Italian team’s medical center. As he has been feeling pain in his wrist for some time now, he regularly goes to get procedures done and for check-ups to ensure that he’s in the best form come the Olympic games. 

Even though the Olympic Games bring a ton of pressure, expectations, and media exposure, Nino shares that he’s ready to face all that and show his best form, hoping to make the entire Italian weightlifting team proud of his performance and the work they’ve done together in the last few years. 

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