Is Federica Pellegrini the greatest Italian athlete ever? - I think so!

The only other athlete I know who exuded this much confidence and then went on to deliver is Muhammad Ali. From Universal Sports who licensed it from Reuters:

ROME (Reuters) -- Federica Pellegrini said she was the greatest Italian athlete ever after winning the 200-meter freestyle at the world swimming championships on Tuesday in a world-record time, her 10th overall.

Pellegrini, 20, clocked in at 1 minute, 52.98 seconds in winning the 200, breaking her own world record. She also was the first woman to break four minutes in the 400 when she won in 3:59.15 on Sunday.

[...] When asked if she was the greatest Italian athlete. ..."

"With today's world record, I've had 10 world records before I'm 21. I've won an Olympic gold medal, two world championship gold medals here. So, I think so," she told a news conference.

[Link]

Her dialog reminds me of an exchange between Lucky Liu and Uma Thurma in the movie Kill Bill. This dialog exchange is at 1:29.00 into the timeline for this Kill Bill Trailer: [Link]

And then this after qualifying for the 4x200 relay. From ANSA.it:

(ANSA) - Rome, July 30 - Italian double world gold medallist Federica Pellegrini is fired up for Thursday night's 4x200m freestyle relay but says her teammates must do a lot more after they scraped into the final.

''I did my bit to get us into the final,'' said Pellegrini, who anchored the relay heat in one minute 54.95 seconds as Italy came home in the eighth-fastest time.

''Of course I'm happy to be in the final but we're not going to get anywhere like this,'' Pellegrini fumed.

''I understand they may have tightened up...but we've been training like hell all year and we can't make such a sorry show''.

[Link]