Italian swimmer Benedetta Pilato, runner-up winner in the women's 50m breaststroke at the Singapore World Championships, was recently revealed that she was suspected of stealing goods at a duty-free shop at Singapore airport and her teammate Chiara Tarantino. She was stopped by police for questioning and detained for several hours before being released after the intervention of the Italian Foreign Minister.

The picture shows a photo of Italian swimmer Benidetta Pilato

The incident was confirmed by several authoritative Italian media agencies. It is that Pilato and his teammates Tarantino and others went to Bali after the World Cup in Singapore. On August 14, they flew through the Singapore airport on their way back to Italy. The airport surveillance found that Pilato and Tarantino covered each other for theft of goods, and Tarantino committed the crime, and the items received were placed in the bag of Pilato, resulting in the airport surveillance was arrested.

The two were immediately controlled by the police, interrogated and charged with theft. Teammates Botazzo and Morini, although they did not steal, were also detained by the police of Singapore, preventing them from boarding the plane, clearly suspecting that they were a gang.

After the Italian foreign ministry learned of the situation, the incident even shook the intervention of Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio-Taiani and eventually allowed several Italian athletes to be released hours later.

The Italian newspaper The Evening Post that Pilato and Tarantino apologized to Singapore and pledged to act correctly in the future.The two men stayed at a local hotel in Singapore after being severely warned and returned to Italy before August 20.

"On days that were supposed to be rest and relaxation, I experienced particularly difficult moments far away from home that later proved irrelevant to my wishes, but deeply influenced me on a human level." After returning to China, Pirato expressed his views on the incident on personal social media,"I have never intentionally acted improperly, and people who know me know how much I value sportsmanship, fairness and personal integrity. From this experience, I deeply realized the value of caution, personal responsibility and the people around me." Pilato's hazy response not only failed to receive public sympathy, but was accused by public opinion of evading responsibility, causing the public to question his integrity.

Thomas Checon is Pirato's teammate in the Italian national team, and the two are even the same coach. Under Pilato's related report, Chekong accompanied a photo of Pilato competing wearing a swimming cap in his name, and joked: "She even stole my swimming cap!" Then he seemed to realize that this was not the time to joke, and immediately deleted the comment.

She wrote under the report: ¡°She even stole my swim hat!¡±

Pirato was born in Taranto, Italy on January 18, 2005. He currently plays for the Italian Police Sports Organization/Rome CC Agne River Club. His main events are breaststroke (50 meters, 100 meters). She became famous when she was young. When she was 14 years old, she competed in the World Championships in 2019 and won the runner-up in the women's 50-meter breaststroke.

Pilato's brightest moment came at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, when she won the women's 100m breaststroke title in a time of 1:05. 93. In five consecutive World Championships from 2019 to 2025, Pilato won two silver and three bronze medals in the 50m breaststroke. Pilato lost to Tang Qianting in the 50-meter breaststroke in the last two world championships and won two bronze medals.

Italian Pilato (right) wins bronze medal Source: World Swimming Federation

In the women's 100m frog swimming final at the Paris Olympics, Pilato finished fourth with a score of 1 minute 05 seconds 60 with a difference of 0.44 seconds and lost a medal. At that time, Dong Cheng-in drove out 1 minute 05 seconds 54 to harvest silver medals.

Source: Zhao News (Reporters from Zhao Li)