Kayaking is 'like Mozart', says Olympic coach

10 August 2012, 09:50 | Updated: 10 August 2012, 09:53

After a long career of Olympic kayak medals, Guiglelmo Guerrini says that his wife's performance was comparable to conducting and performing classical music.

It's not a traditional analogy, but Italian Olympic kayaker Josefa Idem's coach and husband Guiglelmo Guerrini has said that his wife's medal-winning performances over the years are like conducting classical music.

"For me it is like being the conductor and director of the Berlin Philharmonic… It is also Mozart's concerto for four horns. Sometimes it is also U2 rock music. It is something that gives you power and sensation," he said.

He added, for clarification: "I study human movement, and this is the maximum possible capacity of the human body to move."

While Idem (who is 47 years old) might not have hit the high notes and return with a medal from London 2012, her record in the discipline is formidable. She has competed in every single Olympic Games since 1984, and medalled in 1984, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. In London, she was three tenths of a second from winning Bronze.