Italy is toasting the 19-year-old Roman who has become the nation's first woman ever to strike gold at the European Championships.
Alessia Filippi, who comes from one of Rome's roughest districts, smashed the Italian record by almost five seconds in the 400m individual medley to complete her historic endeavour in Budapest on Monday.
Filippi's winning time of 4:35.80 was the fourth fastest registered in the event's history.
"Alessia is golden: Historic triumph," read a headline on the front page of sports daily Corriere dello Sport. "Well done Alessia," said Giovanni Petrucci, the head of the Italian Olympic Committee.
"It's a result that marks the onset of a new era."
Filippi seemed taken aback at becoming the new darling of Italian sport.
"My hair is horrible," was the first thing she said on television.
"I'm happy, but at the moment I have not taken it in.
"I danced to the national anthem (on the podium), but I didn't sing it all because I had the sun in my face and I couldn't see anything".
Filippi's victory was only part of a superb day for Italy in the pool on Monday.
The relay team of Lorenzo Vismara, Christian Galenda, Alessandro Calvi and Filippo Magnani retained the 4x100m freestyle title Italy conquered in Madrid two years ago. Earlier former Olympic champion Massimiliano Rosolino won a silver medal in the 400m freestyle.
"I'm enormously satisfied with the medals," said Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri.
"Alessia Filippi's gold rewards the talent of a promising youngster, while Rosolino showed that the years might pass by, but for an athlete of his calibre, the class does not go away. "The gold in the relay is a prize for our swimmers' determination not to let us down at this big sporting event".
Monday's medal haul comes on top of three bronzes won at the weekend - two by the synchronized swimming team, the other by Ercoli Simone in the men's 5km open-water event. "This is confirmation that Italian swimming is in excellent health," continued Melandri.
"It is a good sign in view of the upcoming international events, like next year's World Championships in Melbourne, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Championships, which will take place in Rome". Filippi's heroics means Italy can now count on two top young female stars in the pool.
The other is Federica Pellegrini, who won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle at the Athens Olympics at the age of just 16. Pellegrini will be looking to add to Italy's gold-medal tally later this week in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle races.
Filippi is a massive AS Roma fan and the Serie A club's captain, Francesco Totti, gave her one of his match shirts before the European championships as a good-luck gesture.
As well as being an ace in the pool, Filippi plays a mean game of volleyball too.
On a TV show the 19-year-old, who is 1.85m tall and weighs 63 kilos, recently said she would like to work as a model.
