Rome, 13 June. “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 by 100 relay, but not only for that: for the 4 by 4, for the 1,500, for the women’s long distance and all the others, some fourth places and fifth places were as important as the medals.” This was stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the ceremony at the Quirinale for the delivery of the Flag to the athletes leaving for the Olympics and Paralympics.
“I would like to say to Gianmarco Tamberi – added the Head of State – that the more I think about the evening the day before yesterday, the more I doubt whether he actually wanted to deliberately implement a sort of thrilling of the type found in Hitchcock’s films , with those two zero jumps to 2.29 and then calmly going to 2.37. Basically a bit like what Larissa Iapichino did last night, reserving the silver medal for the last jump, the last attempt.”
