The President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, received the Olympic medalists last Monday (23) at the Quirinale Palace in Rome. paralympic of the Paris Games.
In addition to the Italians who managed to climb onto the podium in the French capital, the ceremony also had the unprecedented presence of the athletes who came fourth during the mega-events.
“I would like to highlight the excellent health of Italian sport, a clear demonstration of the quality of our teams. Italy was even better than in Tokyo,” said the president.
Mattarella added that the event in the Italian capital served to “recover the engaging and exciting spirit” that the athletes demonstrated in Paris.
“It is impressive that Italy has won medals every day, which is almost unimaginable. Furthermore, the fact that it is the only country to have achieved this is truly a source of satisfaction,” he commented.
At the ceremony, the president also handed out medals to the athletes present and greeted everyone, having exchanged a few more words with several of them, such as Assunta Legnante, Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy and Gregorio Paltrinieri.
The presidents of the Italian National Olympic and Paralympic Committees (CONI and CPI), Giovanni Malagò and Luca Pancalli respectively, thanked Mattarella for his efforts.
“Mattarella, you were our first gold medalist at the Paris Games, and you always stayed close to us. You went to the Olympic Village, braved adverse weather conditions to watch the parade and followed the events, which encouraged our athletes,” said Malagò.
Finally, the head of state was presented by the participants with the ball from the Olympic women's volleyball final, signed by all the winning athletes, and the discus used in the Paralympic final by Ganeshamoorthy. (HANDLE)
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