New Club, Azura Aquatics, Carries on Alex Pussieldi’s High-Powered Multinational Model in South Florida

by Irvin Muchnick and Tim Joyce

We’ve been reporting extensively on Alex Pussieldi, the nonpareil mystery man of multicultural, multinational swimming prowess — and of USA Swimming sex abuse cover-up. Most recently, the website of Pussieldi’s club, the Davie Nadadores, has gone dark, just weeks after it touted his second consecutive “Coach of Excellence” award from the American Swimming Coaches Association.

In the wake of Pussieldi’s “retirement,” a new club has emerged: Azura Florida Aquatics, and an associated summer swim camp, based in Davie, Florida, with the same color scheme as the Nadadores’. The team’s website, http://azuraquatics.com, is super-slick right out of the box and features such sponsors as Marriott hotels. And the Azura athlete talent pool is clearly worldwide.

In the South Florida swimming community, the question therefore has arisen as to whether Pussieldi is a silent partner in a back-door rebranding of the Nadadores.

Last night Azura’s head coach, Giancula Alberani, said the answer to that question is “no.” Emailing from an Italian-domained account, Alberani told us:

“I am the owner and Head Coach of Azura Florida Aquatics, a USA Swimming Team, located in Davie FL, where I also live. I was an assistant coach at Davie Nadadores Swim Team for 3 years under Alex Pussieldi and Tomas Victoria, owners of the company. I decided to open Azura Florida Aquatics after they both announced their retirement and i started my own program in September 2013. Azura Florida Aquatics has no affiliation or connections with Davie Nadadores Swim Team or Alex Pussieldi.”

Alberani then volunteered an answer to a question we hadn’t asked:

“About the articles [at Concussion Inc.] I have no comments about the situation and this individual.”

Complete links to Concussion Inc.’s Pussieldi investigation are at https://concussioninc.net/?p=8652.