TERLIZZI – Ambra Sabatini, gold medalist in the 100 meter T63 at Tokyo 2020, and Luca Mazzone, three-time Paralympic gold medalist in cycling between Rio 2016 and Tokyo, will be the flag bearers of Italy at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paralympics, on 28 August in Paris. This was decided by the board of the Italian Paralympic Committee on the proposal of its president, Luca Pancalli.
«Two protagonists of Italian and world Paralympic sport who best represent a team with important ambitions and great talent. Two names that are the expression of as many of the most medal-winning disciplines on the Italian scene, two sporting paths that represent two different generations of champions. I am sure that both will be able to best convey the values of our movement, representing an example for many people and many young people with disabilities who decide to start practicing a sporting discipline.” Thus the president of CIP, Luca Pancalli, motivates the choice of Ambra Sabatini and Luca Mazzone, flag-bearers for Italy at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. «Ambra, very young, despite appearing on the international stage just a few years ago, is already one of the most great paralympic athletics champions in history and represents not only the present but also the future of the paralympic movement, as well as an example of redemption for many young people – continues Pancalli -. Luca, with his five participations in the Paralympic Games, the 3 golds and 5 silvers won, is one of the flags of Italian and world paralympism”, he concludes.
«It is an honor that I would never have thought of and which repays me for many years of sporting activity”: this is how Luca Mazzone, three gold and three silver at the Paralympics, welcomes the news of the designation as Italian flag-bearer at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, with Ambra Sabatini: «I hope that my story is an example for many young people», adds Mazzone.
«I thank the Italian Paralympic Committee for the decision – underlines Mazzone -. The fact that the president Luca Pancalli proposed my name makes me even more proud. I started playing sports thanks to him. In 1996, while watching TV, I was struck by the news of his sporting feat. The desire to emulate him stirred that something inside me that first brought me to the swimming pool and then to Paralympic cycling.”
«I also thank the Italian cycling federation which has allowed me, in recent years, to realize that dream and those ambitions – the conclusion of the Italian standard-bearer -. I hope that my story and my successes can represent an example, as Pancalli was for me, contributing to getting many boys and girls out of the house to play sport.”
