Lorenzo Mora

Lorenzo Mora (born 30 September 1998) is a competitive Italian swimmer.

He is a world record holder in the short course 4×50 metre medley relay.

He is the Italian record holder in the short course 100 metre backstroke and 200 metre backstroke.

In the 50 metre backstroke, he won the silver medal at the 2021 World Short Course Championships and the bronze medal at the 2022 Mediterranean Games (long course).

In the 100 metre backstroke, he won the silver medal at each the 2022 World Short Course Championships and the 2022 Mediterranean Games.

In the 200 metre backstroke, he won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Short Course Championships, the silver medal at the 2021 European Short Course Championships, and the gold medal at the 2022 Mediterranean Games.

Mora was born on 30 September 1998 in Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

At the inaugural European Games in 2015, held in June in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mora competed in three individual events as a 16-year-old, placing thirteenth in the 50 metre backstroke, seventeenth in the 200 metre backstroke, and twenty-eighth in the 100 metre backstroke.

On the first day of the 2015 European Short Course Championships in December, he placed tenth in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 1:54.12.

The following day, he swam a time of 52.23 seconds in the preliminaries of the 100 metre backstroke to place nineteenth.

Day five of five, he placed thirty-fourth in the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 24.91 seconds.

The following year, at the 2016 European Junior Championships in July, he placed twentieth in the 50 metre backstroke with a 26.54, twenty-fourth in the 100 metre backstroke with a 57.05, and thirty-seventh in the 200 metre backstroke with a 2:07.57.

In December 2017, Mora competed at the year's European Short Course Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, placing fourteenth in the semifinals of the 100 metre backstroke with a 51.46, twelfth with a time of 1:53.16 in the 200 metre backstroke, and twenty-seventh in the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 24.31 seconds.

At the 2019 Nico Sapio Trophy in Genoa in November, he set his first Italian record, breaking the mark of 1:50.75 in the short course 200 metre backstroke set by Simone Sabbioni in 2015 with a time of 1:50.45 in the final.

The following month, at the 2019 European Short Course Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, he placed seventh in the final of the 200 metre backstroke with a 1:51.69, eighth in the final of the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 50.61 seconds, was disqualified in the semifinals of the 50 metre backstroke, and helped achieve a fourth-place finish in the 4×50 metre medley relay, swimming the backstroke leg of the relay in the preliminaries.

On 1 April 2021, Mora won the gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke at the 2021 Italian National Spring Championships with a personal best time of 1:57.23, which was 0.27 seconds faster than the Olympic qualifying time of 1:57.50 for the 2020 Summer Olympics and 0.46 seconds faster than silver medalist Matteo Restivo.

While his time was an Olympic qualifying time, Team Italy used 22 of 26 spots for male swimmers on its 2020 Olympic Games swim team and sent only Matteo Restivo to compete in the 200 metre backstroke, each national Olympic committee was permitted up to two swimmers per individual event if they each achieved the Olympic qualification time.

For his first event of the 2020 European Aquatics Championships, with swimming conducted in long course metres in May 2021 at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mora placed thirty-second in the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 25.76 seconds on the first day of competition.

Two days later, he placed twenty-ninth in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 54.98 seconds.

In the preliminaries of his third and final event two days later, the 200 metre backstroke, he ranked tenth with a time of 1:58.48, which was 3.81 seconds behind first-ranked Luke Greenbank of Great Britain and qualified him for the semifinals.

He placed fourteenth overall in the semifinals with a time of 1:58.13.

At the 2021 European Short Course Championships, held in the Palace of Water Sports in Kazan, Russia, Mora placed sixth in the 50 metre backstroke final with a time of 23.19 seconds.

In the 100 metre backstroke, he swam a 50.19 and placed sixth in the final after swimming a time of 50.12 seconds in the semifinals.

For his third and final individual event, he swam a 1:52.73 in the prelims heats of the 200 metre backstroke, qualifying for the semifinals later the same day.

In the evening semifinals, he set a new Italian record in the event with his time of 1:50.17, which advanced him to the final ranked first.

The following day, the sixth and final day of competition, he lowered his own Italian record in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 1:49.73 in the final that also won him the silver medal in the event.

For his relay event, the 4×50 metre medley relay, he swam the backstroke leg of the relay in a time of 23.21 in the prelims heats, helping advance the relay to the final ranked second with a time of 1:32.98.

The finals relay, which did not include Mora, went on to place first in the final and all Italy relay members in the prelims and final won a gold medal for their efforts.

As part of the swim club Team Iron in the 2021 International Swimming League, Mora helped his club advance to the playoffs, placing third in the 100 metre backstroke at the eleventh and final match of the regular season.

He won the 200 metre backstroke in the first match of the playoffs season with a time of 1:50.92, finishing over a second and a half before second and third place finishers Brodie Williams and Evgeny Rylov.

In the 50 metre backstroke later the same day, he placed sixth with his time of 23.46 seconds.

Up for diversifying his racing portfolio, he also swam the second leg of the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, splitting a time of 52.12 seconds, which was exactly two seconds slower than his personal best 100 metre time in backstroke, and helping the relay finish in seventh place with a time of 3:30.48.

The second day of the match, he placed fifth with a near-personal-best time of 50.41 seconds in the 100 metre backstroke.

He followed up his individual event swim by swimming the backstroke leg of the mixed 4×100 metre medley relay, where his relay placed eighth overall and he swam a time of 50.63 seconds for his 100 metre portion of the relay.

In the fourth match of the playoffs, the second match Team Iron competed in, Mora started his competition on day one with a time of 1:51.21 in the 200 metre backstroke, which earned him fourth place and his team 5.0 points.

He swam a split time of 47.74 seconds for the third leg of the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, helping the relay team place sixth in a time of 3:11.39.

In his third race of the day, he placed sixth in the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 23.56 seconds.

The second and final day of competition for the match, he earned another 2.0 points for his team, placing seventh in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 50.75 seconds.

Swimming the backstroke leg of the mixed 4×100 metre medley relay, he helped the relay earn 10.0 points and finish fourth with a time of 3:37.05.

On day one of the sixth and final playoffs match of the year, Mora won the 200 metre backstroke in a time of 1:50.55 and scored 12.0 points for Team Iron, marking his second win in an individual event in the playoffs season.