# Ileana Salvador

Ileana Salvador (born 16 January 1962) is a former Italian race walker who won eight medals at the World Championships and European Championships
In 2005 she acquired Swedish citizenship.

## Biography

She won ten medals, to senior level, at the International athletics competitions. Specializing in indoor competitions running, boasts six medals (three European silver and three World bronze), just earned indoor. She participated at one edition of the Summer Olympics (1992), she has 29 caps in national team from 1987 to 1996. She was twice World Best Year Performance in Women's Race Walking: 1992 in the 10 km walk and 1993 in the 20 km walk.
Her career and her life, has inspired a book La marcia infinita di Ileana (The neverending racewalking of Ileana), from Valter Esposito (2006, Il Prato publisher).

## Personal life

Ileana Salvador is the companion of the Swedish racewalker, Olympic silver medalist and European Championships bronze medalist, Bo Gustafsson, lives in Sweden from 1996. The couple has two daughters, Nicole (born 1995) and Noelle (born 1998) who is a model and in 2019 she participated in the selections for the Miss Italia contest. She is a teacher of italian language and Consular Officer at Embassy of Italy in Sweden.

## The bronze medal in Barcelona 1992

At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Ileana Salvador won the bronze medal in the 10 km race walk. Or at least she finished third and for 20 minutes rightly celebrated her triumph, only to discover that she was disqualified for having taken the third red card for irregular racewalking, which entails the disqualification, just when she had entered the Stadium sure of her third position.

## Records

She is holder of two world records in not Olympic distance, but recognized by IAAF and former holder of two more records.

### World records

* 25 km walk: 2:08:46 ( Växjö, 28 September 1996) - current holder
* 3000 m walk (track): 11:48:24 ( Padua, 29 August 1993) - current holder
* 2 miles walk indoor: 13:11.88 ( Genoa, 14 February 1990) - until 14 September 1996
* 10,000 m walk (track): 42:39.2 ( Genoa, 17 June 1989) - until 26 May 1990

### European records

* 5000 m walk (track): 20:25.2 ( Barcelona, 5 April 1992) - until 11 July 1995

### National records

* 10,000 m walk (track): 42:23.7 ( Bergen, 8 May 1993) - until 23 April 2017

## Achievements

| Year | Competition | Venue | Rank | Event | Time |
| 1989 | World Indoor Championships | Budapest | 3rd | 3000 m walk | 12:11.33 |
| 1989 | World Race Walking Cup | L'Hospitalet | 3rd | 10 km walk team | 203 pts |
| 1989 | World Race Walking Cup | L'Hospitalet | 3rd | 10 km walk | 43.24 |
| 1989 | Universiade | Duisburg | 1st | 5000 m walk | 20.44 |
| 1989 | European Indoor Championships | The Haugue | 2nd | 3000 m walk | 12:32.43 |
| 1990 | European Indoor Championships | Glasgow | 2nd | 3000 m walk | 12:18.84 |
| 1990 | European Championships | Split | 3rd | 10 km walk | 44:38] |
| 1991 | World Indoor Championships | Seville | 3rd | 3000 m walk | 12.07.67 |
| 1991 | World Race Walking Cup | San Jose | 6th | 10 km walk | 44.52 |
| 1991 | World Race Walking Cup | San Jose | 2nd | 10 km walk team | 180 pts |
| 1991 | World Championships | Tokyo | 7th | 10 km walk | 44.09 |
| 1992 | European Indoor Championships | Genoa | 2nd | 3000 m walk | 11:53.23 |
| 1992 | Olympic Games | Barcelona | DSQ | 10 km walk | no time |
| 1993 | World Indoor Championships | Toronto | 3rd | 3000 m walk | 11:55.35 |
| 1993 | World Race Walking Cup | Monterrey | 6th | 10 km walk | 46.02 |
| 1993 | World Race Walking Cup | Monterrey | 1st | 10 km walk team | 196 pts |
| 1993 | World Championships | Stuttgart | 2nd | 10 km walk | 43:08 |
| 1994 | European Championships | Helsinki | 11th | 10 km walk | 44:51 |
| 1995 | World Race Walking Cup | Beijing | 31st | 10 km walk | 45:55 |
| 1995 | World Race Walking Cup | Beijing | 2nd | 10 km walk team | 429 pts |

## National titles

Salvador won 19 national championships at individual senior level, 15 Italian and 4 Swedish.
* Italian Athletics Championships
** 5000 metres walk: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 (5)
** 10 km walk: 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993 (5)
** 20 km walk: 1993 (1)
* Italian Athletics Indoor Championships
** 3000 metres walk: 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993 (4)
* Swedish Athletics Championships
** 5000 metres walk: 1997 (1)
** 10 km walk: 1997 (1)
* Swedish Athletics Indoor Championships
** 3000 metres walk: 1997, 2001 (2)