“President, you were our gold medal,” says an emotional Giovanni Malagò, president of CONI, addressing Sergio Mattarella. And in the Salone dei Corazzieri of the Quirinale, applause erupts. The Quirinale opens its doors to the Olympic and Paralympic athletes who won medals in Paris and, at Mattarella’s request, there are also the fourth-place finishers. Luckily, in Paris there were many medals and the Salone is full of girls and boys in tracksuits with the word “Italia” written on them.
In Paris the Azzurri won 40 medals (12 golds, 13 silvers, 15 bronzes) bringing Italy to fourth place in the medal table (seventh place overall for number of podiums, third in Europe behind Great Britain and the hosts France). There were 19 fourth places and 47 fifth places.
The CONI president pointed out that since August 18, 2016 (Rio de Janeiro Olympics), every day that there has been an Olympic competition, Italy has won a medal.
At the Paralympic Games in Paris, the Italian national team finished in sixth place in the medal table and won an unprecedented number of medals: 71 in total (24 gold, 15 silver and 32 bronze).
From this data, he points out Sergio Mattarella in his speech, “the excellent state of health of Italian sport stands out. The clear demonstration of the quality of our two teams has emerged, with general satisfaction. This quality is also underlined today by the presence, alongside those who have achieved the emotion of a medal, of those who have achieved fourth place. Not only because they represent all the athletes who, even without getting on the podium, have participated brilliantly. And this – it must be remembered – is the Olympic spirit. Benedetta Pilato reminded us of this. The fourth places are present here also to represent the great solidity with which our sports movement – Olympic and Paralympic – has presented itself in Paris. The medals are not due to individual isolated champions, almost cathedrals in the desert. But, on the contrary, to a sports movement in good health and constantly growing. Growth to be supported in every way”.
Great satisfaction from Luca Pancallipresident of the Italian Paralympic Committee, who thanked Mattarella, RAI (which broadcast all the competitions in Paris) and underlined one aspect: “behind every great result of an athlete there is always a great family”.
After the official speeches and the return of the flag that the standard-bearers had received at the Quirinale last June, Mattarella gave all the athletes a commemorative medal. The girls’ volleyball team presented the President with a T-shirt with his name and the ball from the Olympic final signed by the Italian gold medalists. Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy, Paralympic champion in discus throw, presented the President with the apparatus.
Among the absentees are Marcel Jacobs, the tennis players Errani and Paolini, the cyclist Ganna (engaged in the World Championships in Zurich).
“Thank you,” said Mattarella, “also to the girls and boys who, with your extraordinarily successful and serious behavior, you have induced to engage in sport.”