The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella received the Olympic and Paralympic medalists of the Paris 2024 Games at the Quirinale and this year, for the first time, also the Italian athletes who ranked in fourth place.
The ceremony opened with the performance of the National Anthem and the screening of a video entitled “Paris 2024” produced by Rai Sport. The president of the Italian National Olympic Committee, Giovanni Malagò, and the president of the Italian Paralympic Committee, Luca Pancalli, spoke.
Subsequently the Standard Bearers of the Olympic team, Arianna Errigo and Gianmarco Tamberi, and the Standard Bearer of the Paralympic team, Ambra Sabatinireturned to the Head of State the national flags with the signatures of the athletes who won Olympic and Paralympic medals. President Mattarella greeted those present and then gave the athletes a commemorative medal. The meeting was attended by the directors of the IOC, CONI and CIP, the Technical Commissioners of the medal-winning disciplines, and the heads of the Armed Forces and State Corps representing their respective sports groups.
“Stands out the excellent state of health of Italian sporta clear demonstration of the quality of our teams”, he said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who spoke of a “sporting event in good health and constantly growing, to be supported in every way”. Italy has “done even better than Tokyo” and “it was difficult”, he added. This meeting at the Quirinale “wants to prolong the celebration of sport that began with the delivery of the flags and developed in the games” in Paris, “it would like to recapture its spirit, that engaging and exciting spirit that you have all interpreted and brought to life so well”, Mattarella began. “It is striking that Italy has collected medals every day, something unimaginable” for past “experiences”. “And the fact of being the only country to have this characteristic – added Mattarella, addressing the president of Coni Giovanni Malagò – is truly a source of satisfaction”.
“The confirmations” of the good health of Italian sport “continue, like that provided yesterday by Filippo Ganna and Edoardo Affini in the cycling world championships”, explained the head of state.
“I would like to say to Gianmarco Tamberi and Ambra Sabatini that they won the medals with their generous participation and everyone’s affection“, the President of the Republic added.
The President of the Republic presented a medal to the Italian men and women who reached the podium and obtained fourth place in their respective events at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. The Head of State shook hands and congratulated all the Italian men and women, applauding them one by one, and exchanged a few more words with some of them, such as Assunta Legnante, Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy and Gregorio Paltrinieri.
Mattarella underlined “the presence, next to those who achieved the emotion of a medal, of those who won fourth place. Not only because they represent all the athletes who, even without getting on the podium, participated. This is the Olympic spirit”. But “also to represent the great solidity with which our sports movement presented itself in Paris. The medals are not due to single isolated champions”, he said.
“President Mattarella, you were our first gold medal at the Paris Games”, he thanked the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagòthe Head of State for his presence at the Olympics. “You – continued Malagò – have always been close, but this time you were present: you came to the Village, you followed the races, this pushed our athletes. And during the ceremony you defied the weather conditions to see the tricolor parade”, concluded Malagò recalling Mattarella in the rain and making the Head of State smile.
Pancalli to Mattarella: “Thank you for being with us”
“Results are not achieved by chance and the success in Paris was extraordinary.we have also surpassed France“. Luca Pancalli, president of the Italian Paralympic Committee, began the ceremony at the Quirinale. “His presence at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games was extremely important for us – he continued, addressing the President of the Republic Mattarella – because living with them, at the canteen, was a further sign of recognition and respect. At the start we had many dreams and ambitions, the Paris edition was a revolutionary one and we will be able to say ‘we were there’ and remember that President Mattarella was there with us”. Previously, Pancalli had given special thanks to Rai2, which “with the Paralympic network allowed us to enter the homes of Italians, who were intrigued, passionate, and in love. According to the data, the most interested age group was those under 35”.
To Mattarella the ball of the blue volleyball team and the puck of Rigivan
The ball from the women’s Olympic volleyball final, autographed by all the athletes who won the first historic gold in Paris, was donated to President Mattarella, a great fan of the discipline, during the ceremony at the Quirinale. The Head of State was also given the discus used in the Paralympic final by the Italian Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy, who became famous for his result accompanied by three world records in a single race.