Mattarella: “Drums like Hitchcock. I violated the protocol for the European Championships, it was worth it”

43 days before the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella welcomed at the Quirinale Gianmarco Tamberi, Arianna Errigo, Luca Mazzone And Ambra Sabatini, Italy’s flag bearers at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Head of State he handed over the tricolor to our representatives and then gave a speech to those present. These are the most important steps.

“At the Games you will also send another important message in this international period: the United Nations Assembly has asked for an Olympic truce on the model of what happened in ancient Greece, I don’t know if it will happen, because this request clashes with the obtuseness of who starts wars, but the message that you will send with your colleagues from other countries is an equally important message of coexistence, friendship, collaboration”

“I don’t make predictions for Paris: I am certain of one thing, that you will employ all your commitment in solidarity between yourselves, which is evident and is a value of great importance for the serenity of the commitment; in sporting loyalty; in respect towards of competitors, of so-called adversaries, who are competitors who contribute to the desire to overcome one’s limits, to reach new goals. You will do all this with loyalty, solidarity, with respect for others and this will be your first victory, our first too victory”.

“I would like to congratulate her, in addition to the many she has often received, for her fencing successes and also for this excellent ability to cope with two different commitments: that of a mother and that of a champion, an extraordinary demonstration”.

“I would like to say to Gianmarco Tamberi that the more I think about the evening the day before yesterday, the more I have the doubt that he actually wanted to deliberately implement a sort of thrilling of the type in Hitchcock’s films, with those two zero jumps to 2 .29 and then calmly go to 2.37. Basically a bit like what Larissa Iapichino did last night, reserving the silver medal for the last jump.”

“Yesterday I committed an infringement of the protocol practice at the Quirinale by going to the same event a second time, but I assure you that it was worth it. For the extraordinary 4×100 relay, but not only for that: for the 4 by 4, for the 1,500, for the women’s long distance, for all the others, some fourth places and fifth places were as important as the medals.”