Elena's Decisions

Though it deputed only two years ago, the Bocconi Run is already well-known for its high quality participants. One such participant is 19-year-old Elena Vittone, the winner of this year's women's competition, who is enrolled in her first year of the Bachelor of Business Administration and Management. She is a member of Runner Team RT 99 and trained with Andrea Monti ("I started in GS Chivassesi with president Claudio Clerici," she says).

Tall, thin and a little shy, Elena has the typical body type of a mid-distance runner, partly due to natural gifts but mostly because she trains hard and makes some sacrifices. She has been repaid with results: "This year I won the regional championship in Piedmont, in the Juniors category of cross-country running," explains Elena, "and I placed fifth in the national finals in Pescara for the 5-mile track race." These are excellent results, following her work in 2008, when she won third place in the 1500 and 3000 track races in Piedmont and eighth in the 3000 in the Youth category at the National finals in Rieti.

These performances didn't happen by chance: "When I was younger I played volleyball," says Elena, who is from Chiasso, not far from Turin. "Then when I was 14 I started track and field, the only other sport other than swimming that you could play where I'm from." It was a completely new world, where "there's no team spirit, which reduces both disappoints and satisfactions. In track and field you're alone, and happiness and pain is much more personal."

Elena at the 2010 Bocconi Run finish line

Her approach to track and field was positive from the start. She quickly tried out the various sports, then her first coach assigned her to mid-distance running, "because I didn't have a very fast core speed, which is natural, but you can improve endurance with training." For someone who is competitive and ambitious, training "means going out everyday, no matter what kind of weather," even during the cold winters in her hometown.

She makes the effort voluntarily, especially when she was repaid with her first victories: "The wins and timing improvements generally come at the same time and, and, until you continue to improve you don't feel tired from training, and everything you have to give up doesn't bother you. When you stop winning, that's when it's time to stop."

Elena is at a crossroads right now, with her life radically changed in the past few months after moving to Milan to attend Bocconi. "I thought a lot about my decision to come to Bocconi, and my family and decided that I would have better career prospects after graduation if I came here. But I know," she continues, "that moving here changed my training habits. Studying is hard work, and now I'm in a new group, even if my trainer has connections with Pro Patria Milano, one of the oldest groups in Italian track and field."

It's a group that has included an Olympic, European and world champion like Alberto Cova. Whatever choice Elena makes about her future, though, the Bocconi Run may have already found its ruler for the next few years.