Some people fantasize about fulfilling their dreams. Other people plan to do it one day. Valeria Rubino actually did it. And without a plan. “Plans rarely happen, so I don’t even bother making them,” the green-eyed Italian journalist often says. A quiet kid with a great brain and a big American dream, she found herself catapulted in the world of sports in the United States mainly by chance, added to a pinch of fearlessness that made her who she is today.
Valeria has had the pleasure to interview so many personalities of the US world, from eminent politicians to artists, actors, celebrities of all sorts. What she really loves, though, is sports reporting. “It gives me such an adrenaline rush. I often can’t sleep at night after my interviews. But those are the moments I cherish and enjoy the most,” she explains. An athlete herself, she deeply understands the whole world that hides behind the athletes’ façade. That’s why she is able to dig deeper with her questions, getting a bit of the champions’ souls. And the truth is the athletes love answering her questions. She makes them think harder. She is forcing them to introspect, with a smile and some very-needed empathy.
Valeria has been covering the NBA for many years and she has basically interviewed all the legends and stars of this sport many times, from Magic Johnson to LeBron James, from Vince Carter to Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The list would be too long.
If you have seen Kobe Bryant’s interviews in Italian, he was probably answering Valeria’s questions. They had a bond due to their Italian soul.
If one day she wasn’t asking him questions, he’d go to her and ask her in fluent Italian: “Niente domande oggi?”, meaning “no questions today?”
The blonde Southern-Italian – yes, they exist – also covers other sports, such as soccer and hockey. She particularly loves boxing because she noticed “how humble and nice these athletes are” and she can flaunt amazing interviews with many present and past world champions, including Tyson Fury, Canelo Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol, Manny Pacquiao, and Anthony Joshua.
Valeria used to swim 25k races for the Italian national team. Very harsh and hard competitions in open water, which could last even more than six hours if the weather conditions were inclement. That’s what made a very sweet and shy girl tough. That’s what formed her character, that allowed her to face any issue.
Her sculpted, athletic body and her pretty features have often been an obstacle to her career. A few TV shows and jobs were offered to her, only to find out the condition was accepting to ‘’celebrate in some man’s suite’’. She kept her integrity, refused any offer based on compromises and kept respecting her old-fashioned values. After all, she might look from elsewhere, but she is still an Italian from the South. Nowadays, she can look at herself in the mirror and think: “I made it without compromising any of my values. My parents can be proud”. Valeria is a sports and news video/print journalist and producer. She also films and edits. She has worked in real estate. She is an inspiration for any young girl with big dreams.
Her talent is shocking. She can conduct any kind of interview in any of the five different languages she is fluent in. Actually six: Would you believe me if I told you she is also an interpreter of Neapolitan, a language that’s very different from Italian? It sounds like a joke, but she is actually helping old people who aren’t proficient in English or Italian to communicate: For example, elderly people in hospitals, who need to talk with American doctors somehow and understand what they say. “I love to help people in need. I feel so strange speaking to them in Neapolitan because – as a child- it was forbidden by my family to use that language at home,” she adds, laughing. To sum it all up, she might have even saved some lives.
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