Athletic Achievers

A former two-weight world champion, Paulie Malignaggi now brings 16 years of boxing experience to bear as a commentator for Showtime and Sky Sports.   Being a professional boxing commentator is all about picking up on the patterns of the fight, the subtle stuff, and assessing how fighters should adjust their approach before it even happens. So says Paulie Malignaggi, who works as a boxing analyst for Showtime and Sky Sports, and who also used to work for Fox Sports 1. “I try to involve the fans and try to make them more cognizant of what’s going on,” he says. …

Set to join DiMaggio and Marciano in the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame this fall, Gene Pingatore has earned his place in the pantheon through his longevity and stellar record.   Gene Pingatore still can’t quite believe that in November he’ll be among the inductees into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. “I am totally honored and extremely humbled,” he says. “When you think about it, I’m a high school coach. And here I go to the hall of fame with all my heroes who are there — Joe DiMaggio, Rocky Marciano. It just boggles my …

  With 30-plus years of harness racing under his belt, Dave Palone has amassed an astounding 18,400 wins in more than 75,000 races. Dave Palone has logged about 18,400 career wins in his 30-plus years as a harness race driver. That’s an average of about 600 wins per year, with 700 or 800 wins in his better years. Twelve races a day, four days a week, and voila, you have the sport’s winningest driver. “I’ve done it so many times, I know the horses, I’ve driven most of them, I know their tendencies,” the 56-year-old Palone says. “That’s probably the …

  A team leader at Boston College, Sam Apuzzo netted one of her sport’s top honors while only a junior. Sam Apuzzo, a junior at Boston College, was this year’s recipient of the prestigious Tewaaraton Award, given annually to the most outstanding American male and female college lacrosse players. Apuzzo is the first female player from Boston College to win the award after being a top-five finalist last year. The award ceremony was held May 31 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Lacrosse is rooted in centuries of Native American tradition and “Tewaaraton” …

  Hooked on synchronized swimming after witnessing a team workout at the local YMCA, Ruby Remati has battled her way to the top of the sport in America. When someone says “synchronized swimming,” do you picture ladies with flowered caps moving languidly through the water? You better not, says Ruby Remati, the 2017 U.S. national champion in the solo and figures categories. “It’s an extremely demanding sport, and it requires a lot of hours of training,” the 15-year-old says. “There are some people who look at is as a stereotype, but there are also a lot of people who find …

A standout at every level of women’s lacrosse, Krystin Porcella is a leader in the movement to take the sport professional. Star athlete, coach and now general manager — Krystin Porcella has pretty much experienced all facets of women’s lacrosse. Her philosophy is to empower athletes to make the right choices at the right time. “This applies on field and off field,” she says. “If we can develop each player to reach their potential for leadership, we have a whole team of players who have bought into the mission and are focused on the goals.” In March 2017, Porcella was …

With only himself for company and a sexton as his guide, he will compete to be the first of two dozen sailors to sail around the world without making landfall. Francesco Cappelletti is the only Italian skipper among a group of hardcore, adventurous purists who’ve signed up to sail 30,000 solo miles around the globe in a race devoid of modern technology. The 2018 Golden Globe Race will take place on the 50th anniversary of the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation done by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston during the Sunday Times Golden Globe Yacht Race in 1968. The 2018 race starts July …

A fly fisher for more than eight decades, she literally helped define the sport while opening the door for other women to enter it. Ninety-one-year-old Joan Salvato Wulff, the “First Lady of Fly Fishing,” says that even after all these decades, she never fails to feel a jolt of life every time she casts into the water. “Fly fishing puts you in touch with the natural world,” she says. “Everything we do is in tune with that.” Salvato Wulff is a proud inductee of both the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame and the American Casting Association Hall of …

Giovanni “Gio” Mioletti won a unanimous decision on April 28 at the UIC Pavilion, beating formerly undefeated William Hernandez in a battle of undefeated featherweights. It was his toughest test to date and, according to his trainer and head coach, John Nocita, “He did everything he had to do to beat a very tough opponent.” Mioletti, from suburban Woodridge, was excited to be fighting in front of his hometown fans. “I was really looking forward to this bout because I knew I’d have family and friends in attendance,” he says. The win moves Mioletti’s record to 7-0, and Nocita thinks …

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing one of professional boxing’s most respected stars outside of the ring. From Chicago, the only Italian-American professional boxing judge in the state of Illinois, always in the neutral corner, is Mauro DiFiore. DiFiore never steps into the ring and he must always maintain strict neutrality. His skills and 50 years of boxing experience have made him one of the most sought after professional boxing judges in the world. His reputation as one of the best has brought him to a level few ever attain. The globetrotting DiFiore has judged championship matches all over the world. He …