Italian National Team head coach Cesare Butini has spoken for the first time about the case involving Olympic swimmers Benedetta Pilato and Chiara Tarantino, who were stopped at Singapore airport last week over an alleged theft. The matter was later clarified without legal consequences, but it has drawn wide media attention in Italy.
In an interview with Italian La Repubblica, Butini did not mince words:
“Great disappointment for a behavior that does not help anyone and certainly damages the sport in general. In my role I will have the chance to speak with them. I will tell them they made a big stupidity. They are role models, even when they don’t wear the national uniform. What they did is very serious. Ending up on the front page for this, no thanks. The Federation already condemned the incident, even if the girls were not with the national team. With President Paolo Barelli we will evaluate the situation in the coming days and take decisions when we have more elements for a clearer picture. But in general this story must serve as a lesson for all of us.”
The Italian Swimming Federation (FIN) had already issued a statement clarifying that the incident occurred outside of federation activities, during a private vacation following the World Championships in Singapore. The federation emphasized that the situation was resolved with the support of the Italian Embassy, but also “stigmatized the incident” and reserved the right to evaluate the matter further.
Butini’s remarks confirm the federation’s stance that the case will not be minimized and that internal discussions will take place at the leadership level.
The incident has also proved difficult from a communication standpoint. While Benedetta Pilato quickly released a public statement on her Instagram account, expressing that she had fully cooperated with authorities and reaffirming her values of honesty and fair play, Chiara Tarantino has remained silent. She shut down her social media accounts and has been unreachable since.
Tarantino, who competes for the Fiamme Gialle (the sports group of Italy’s Guardia di Finanza, which is the organization’s police force enforcing financial and economic laws), may now also face consequences from her military sports club.
Next steps
On the federation’s side, the FIN Prosecutor’s Office is expected to open an internal investigation once activities resume. The inquiry will aim to reconstruct the facts and, if necessary, bring the case before the Federal Tribunal for possible disciplinary action.
Both Pilato and Tarantino competed at the recent World Championships in Singapore, after which they spent several days on vacation in Bali. They were stopped by Singapore airport authorities during their return trip. The matter was resolved within hours, but it remains under review by the federation and other relevant bodies.
I’m embarrassed for them — giving me winona ryder vibes!!!
Walking in Liangelo Ball‘s footsteps
lotta huffing and puffing from someone in a job position that you can almost safely assume is involved with plenty of corruption..
they’re young people, young people are stupid, wow what news, probably tried to steal some expensive perfume or what have you.. also from a duty-free store no less, no mom and pops store that would actually be financially hurt by petty theft
they should be reprimanded as they were ofc but for the love of god stop the performative pearl clutching
Sir, this is Wendy’s
Beat me to it. I was going to say “just put the fries in the bag”. But yours was better.
Tell that to the young Italian 8 year old girl swimmer that idolizes them.
20-year old athletes that are put on pedestals (like Pilato has been for 6 years in Italy – hopefully she will be absolved from this sordid event) are not children. Pretty fundamental – if you’re a high profile athlete for your country – and a global sports Ambassador for it – there are certain things that you really should not do. Stealing on-camera in one of the toughest countries on theft and drugs in the world (caning for crimes and yes, even mandatory death for drug trafficking) would be in the “should not do” column. BTW – when you landed in Singapore on an international flight… Read more »
Landed in Singapore in the past year, no warnings like that. My friend didn’t believe me about the gum situation but turns out gum is allowed in the airport.
Last time I went through, there were warnings about gum and so forth given if you cleared customs and immigration to go into Singapore, not if you just stayed in the airport.
Kids did stupid thing that was against the law. There are consequences which is how kids learn to not do stupid things.
20 years old and a national representative is not a ‘kid’.
it wasn’t even an expensive perfume. According to Italian news, it was essential oil worth 10 dollars. They clearly made a mistake, but the situation has been blown out of proportion.
If it’s only $10, why steal instead of buy?
Yea…. Keep telling everyone it’s not a big deal. That’s a really helpful deterrent…
Your post is a big stupidity.
You did notice, maheny, the the public statement from the swimmers involved does not acknowledge that they did anything wrong – in fact, it seemed to imply that the swimmers considered themselves to be victims in some way (i.e. the Lochte approach). I’d be willing to give them more of a break if they showed just a bit of contrition and apologized for their actions.
Stealing is stealing. Who is to say they don’t make a habit of it?
Breaking the law in a foreign country is beyond stupid. Especially a universal law like theft. Make an example of them. They are adults not 10 year olds.
Very unfortunate. The stupidity of the two (or maybe one, we’ll see) athletes is overwhelming. It unfortunately:
1) reinforces multiple racist stereotypes about Italians being thieves (UNJUSTLY rooted in mafia folklore and petty theft crimes (such as pickpocket) in very dense tourist areas, when violent crimes are much higher in the US)
2) damages the brand (and potential livelihood) of all other Italian swim team members – on team that has become dominant with a fraction of the population of the US.
3) damages the Italy brand overall – not just in sports.
Ryan Lochte was suspended for 10 months by the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming for fabricating a story about being robbed at gunpoint… Read more »
Making a false police report about being robbed at gunpoint seems like a far more significant offense than stealing a bottle of perfume from duty free.
If Lochte had skipped the police report, I would put the rest of his offenses that night (vandalizing a soap dispenser and urinating on the floor of a gas station bathroom while intoxicated) in the same category as this. Illegal, but mostly just embarrassing.
As a school principal might say to them, ‘you let the team down, your let your family down, you let the country down, but most of all, you let yourselves down!’
I know it’s either a translation or the words of a person whose first language isn’t English, but I’m still gonna send a lot of emails to coworkers today telling them they’ve made a “big stupidity”.
“Grande Stupidita” is an easy one to translate. Make sure you get the gender correct for Stupidity if you use the Italian
It’s “stupidaggine” in this case. Stupidità refers to the state of mind, not the act.
Reminds me of an embarassing incident during/after Seoul ’88 Olympics with some US men’s swimmers. If I remember correctly there was the threat from Korean authorities of “caning” as punishment, as in beating with a cane.
Countless South Korean authorities at those Games should have been caned for the Roy Jones travesty, which was never remedied
https://www.sportbible.com/boxing/boxing-news/roy-jones-jr-park-sihun-olympics-boxing-946688-20250904