Malagò meets Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama for over an hour of talks on sports and socio-economic issues

• IN TIRANA

Over an hour of cordial discussion aimed at strengthening the bond between Italy and Albania. CONI President Giovanni Malagò, in Tirana for the signing of a technical and sporting cooperation agreement with the Albanian Olympic Committee, was received in the afternoon by Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The Prime Minister, formerly Minister of Sport, who before his political career wore the jersey of the national basketball team, discussed with Malagò not only the aspects related to the sports partnership signed today, but also socio-economic issues that concern both countries, confirming the strong relationship between Italy and Albania.

Flora Tabanelli, the rising star of freestyle, has been selected as the flag-bearer for the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon 2024

• ITALIA TEAM

Flora Tabanelli is the Italian flag-bearer at the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG). The announcement was made by CONI President, Giovanni Malagò, and General Secretary, Carlo Mornati, during the presentation conference, held in Milan, of the Italia Team that will take part in the Olympic event, reserved for the world’s best under-18 athletes, to be held in South Korea from 19 January to 1 February.

Born in Bologna on 20 November 2007, the athlete from Sestola (Modena), who grew up competitively in Trentino with Ski Team Fassa and is a member of the Army, is the future of Italian freestyle. As a child, she practised snowboard cross, skating and artistic gymnastics, but it was with skis on her feet, following in her brother Miro’s footsteps, where her talent shone through right away.

In fact, the Tabanelli siblings represent the present and the future of the discipline, with Flora already making winter sports history.

Last summer, on the snows of Cardrona, in New Zealand, she became the first Italian ever (including males) to win a world title at junior level in freestyle. The not-yet-16-year-old from Emilia won gold at Big Air, a week after winning silver in slopestyle. Fun fact: the last Italian who took world bronze in freeskiing was her brother Miro, in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) in 2021.

A month ago Tabanelli, who attends the Ski College Val di Fassa, registered another record by becoming, at only 16 years of age, the second Italian in the top three of a World Cup big air event with her third place in Beijing. Before her, only Silvia Bertagna had stood on the podium in the speciality, with one success (in 2016), three second places and one third place.

Flora will parade with the Tricolour at the Gangwon 2024 Opening Ceremony to be held on 19 January, at 8pm Korean time, at the Gangneung Oval. Tabanelli will be the second Emilian, after Alberto Tomba, flag-bearer at Albertville 1992, to serve as the Italian flag-bearer in a winter edition of the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games.

The Italian will make her competition debut on 24 January in the slopestyle event scheduled in Hoengseong and, three days later, she will compete in the big air. (agc)

Photo Claudio Scaccini GMT/CONI

Italia Team flag bearers at previous editions of the Winter YOG:

Innsbruck 2012 – Florian Gruber (luge)

Lillehammer 2016 – Felix Schwarz (luge)

Losanna 2020 – Alessia Tornaghi (figure skating)

Italia Team presented ahead of Gangwon 2024 with 74 Azzurri competing in 13 disciplines. Malagò: “Lots of potential”

• WINTER YOG

The Italia Team that will take part in the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) has been made official. Announcing the Italia Team, led by flag-bearer Flora Tabanelli, were CONI President Giovanni Malagò and General Secretary Carlo Mornati during a presentation held at the Allianz Tower in Milan.

“Here there is the big family of winter sports and ice,” stated Malagò. “A few years ago the Youth Olympic Games did not exist: establishing it was a gamble that has paid dividends, and one that has two remits. On the one hand, to allow young people under a certain age to savour the atmosphere of the Olympics and record, for some of them, their first successes at the Youth Olympic Games before going on to the ”grown-up” Games; on the other hand, to bring juniors closer to Olympic disciplines and new sports. In order to capitalise on the investments and enhance the legacy of the event, whoever hosts the Olympic Games after a few years hosts the same Youth event: this is the case in Korea, we think there are the conditions to do the same with Milano Cortina. The kits are the same, the emblem is the same: the tricolour of the Olympic Committee, the Italy logo, the Olympics. There is great responsibility for the athletes. It is said that the thermometer of a country is also based on results: we start out with lots of potential. Our flag-bearer, Flora Tabanelli, represents a discipline that hasn't historically delivered notable results for us: freestyle is expanding, it is growing, including among juniors. In this case there is a significant family element, as her brother Miro has done very well in the past. Only one Italian before Flora has stood on the podium in the Big Air World Cup. Selecting her was a unanimous choice.”

Flora Tabanelli was visibly excited: “I don’t know what to say, I didn’t expect this. I’m very happy. I feel proud to be Italian and to be able to live this experience.”

There will be 74 Azzurri competing against the world’s best under-18s in South Korea from 19 January to 1 February and, for the second consecutive time, the young Italian delegation will be predominantly female. While in Lausanne 2020, the first winter edition with gender parity, the Italian women numbered 34 out of 67, at the Korean YOG there will be 42 female athletes (56.75%) with 32 males, amounting to a total of 74 athletes (44 registered for FISI and 30 for FISG) who will take part in 13 of the 15 disciplines in the programme (Italy will not be represented in bobsleigh and skeleton).

Numerous children following in their parents’ footsteps feature in the team, especially in luge where Italy will field Manuel Weissensteiner, son of Gerda Weissensteiner, Olympic gold medallist in Lillehammer 1994 and Italian flag-bearer in Nagano 1998, Leon Haselrieder, whose father Oswald won bronze in Turin 2006, and Alexandra Obertstolz, daughter of Christian, who participated in four editions of the Games, and Anastasija Oberstolz-Antonova, an Olympic team member with Italy in Turin 2006. Others include Stella Giacomelli, whose father Guido was European ski mountaineering champion, and who will compete in cross-country skiing, Rebecca Mariani, daughter of Marco, the Italian national curling team member present at the Turin Games and Italy’s official at the Korean YOG, and Marco Pinzani, who carries on the family tradition in Nordic disciplines. Also on the Gangwon team will be Emily Innocenti, who will try to follow in the footsteps of her sister Elisa, gold medallist at the Lausanne 2020 YOG in mixed hockey, siblings Anna and Manuel Senoner (in Nordic combined) and twins Aurora and Nicole Varesco (in hockey).

Gangwon 2024 will be the first winter edition of the YOGs to be held in Asia, building on the legacy of facilities left over from the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. The event will feature a record number of participants: 1,900, compared to 1,788 at Lausanne 2020. It will also be the first Olympic youth event to offer fans an experience in the Metaverse.

Before the presentation ceremony of Italia Team, the athletes who will make their debut in the Olympic event received their kits made by EA7 and were updated on the upcoming Games by Head of Mission Alessio Palombi, Deputy Head of Mission Elisa Santoni, by the Attorney General for Sport Ugo Taucer, with contributions from former Italian skier Matteo Marsaglia, who will participate in Gangwon 2024 in the IOC Athlete Career Transition Programme, and multiple Olympic biathlon medallist Dominik Windisch, in Korea as IOC Role Model. This is the first time that CONI has dedicated an entire day of training and refresher courses to an Olympic team.

Olympic ranking verdict in, Alessio and Dell'Aquila fly to the Games: 100 Azzurri qualified for Paris

• TAEKWONDO

The Italian team reaches triple figures: just over 200 days before the Opening Ceremony, 100 Italian athletes have qualified for Paris 2024.

This (provisional) tally was made possible by the two national places officially secured today in taekwondo (Photo FITA).

At the close of the Olympic qualification ranking Simone Alessio is clearly ahead in the -80 kg category: 500.24 points for the two-time world champion (2019 and 2023), who will take part in the second Olympic event of his career in France. The news had been certain for some time, and now it has been officially confirmed.

Vito Dell'Aquila, who made headlines in Tokyo 2020 by securing the gold medal in the -58 kg category, is set for his second Olympic appearance. Ranked fourth in the same category (372.04 points), he has earned his spot in Paris. Decisive for the Italian's placing was the victory at the Grand Prix Final in December in Manchester.

The individual Olympic ranking closes and Camilli gifts Italia Team a place in Paris 2024

• SHOW JUMPING

In Paris 2024, Italia Team will also be represented in show jumping. The decision comes after the closing of the individual Olympic ranking, reserved for the National Olympic Committees that had not yet qualified the team.

The ranking, which considers the 15 best results of the athlete/horse combination in the events recognised by the FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale), favours an Italian pair.

Indeed, Emanuele Camilli and his Odense Odeveld (photo ANSA) finished first in Group B with 1215 points. Behind them is another Italian, Emanuele Gaudiano, who scored 1090 points with his horse, Chalou. Only one national place is up for grabs, however, for each National Olympic Committee, so, in addition to Italy, Portugal will also be at the Olympic Games thanks to the third place (942 points) of Duarte Seabra with his horse Dourados 2.

After securing the Olympic quota in the team eventing, the National Equestrian Sports Team can now celebrate their qualification for the individual show jumping competition.

From Tamberi to success in the Davis Cup: Italian sport completes another record year with its focus already turning to Paris 2024

• ITALIA TEAM

Italia Team can toast the end of another exhilarating year.

After the record-breaking 2022, a season marked by the 17 medals obtained at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the tricolour movement has once again cemented its leading place in the international elite, confirming itself in the G8 of the world elite.

2023 overwhelmingly featured all the traits of a multi-sport country capable of reaching at least one world podium in 19 of the 34 disciplines in Paris 2024 and, overall, of collecting 16 world titles spread across the summer and winter Olympic programme. If we limit ourselves to considering only the most important European multi-sport event of the season, we should also mention the record in the medal table of the Krakow 2023 European Games with 35 gold, 26 silver and 39 bronze medals. But Italia Team also towered above everyone at the Mediterranean Beach Games 2023 in Heraklion (with 42 medals including 13 gold) and, at youth level, at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Maribor, bringing home 46 medals (16 gold).

In the year now drawing to a close, the skiing exploits of world gold medallists Marta Bassino, Federica Brignone and Simone Deromedis, the historic first world championship of the women’s biathlon relay team, the world successes on ice with Davide Ghiotto in speed skating and Pietro Sighel in short track will remain etched in history. But that’s not all: the Italian anthem also resounded on the world championship pistes in Milan thanks to Tommaso Marini, Alice Volpi and the women’s foil and men’s epee national teams. 2023’s highlights also include Gianmarco Tamberi’s indelible victory (photo ANSA) in Budapest in the high jump, the titles of Simone Alessio in taekwondo and Matteo Zurloni in sport climbing, Elena Micheli’s historic encore in the modern pentathlon, Irma Testa’s first time in boxing and yet another thrilling triumph for Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti in the Nacra 17 sailing class.

Among the precious pieces in an all-Italian mosaic that has characterised another year of successes are the jewel in the crown of tennis with the historic victory of the Davis Cup, which returns to Italy after 47 years, and the rise of Jannik Sinner to the top of the world rankings, Francesco Bagnaia’s encore world title in Moto GP, Andrea Adamo’s title in motocross, and the women’s hour record set by Vittoria Bussi in cycling.

But now that 2023 is drawing to a close, the wait is on for a 2024 that will culminate in the Summer Olympics in Paris. Italia Team once again enters the new year with fresh ambitions and the hope of making the sporting dreams of so many Italians come true again. Olympic dreams. Happy 2024!

Niccolò Campriani enters the Walk of Fame: “An honour that makes me proud”

• CONI

The Walk of Fame of Italian sport has been enriched with the name of another legend.

On the floor of the Foro Italico, in the presence of CONI president Giovanni Malagò and the president of the Italian Shooting Union Costantino Vespasiano, multiple Olympic medallist Niccolò Campriani unveiled his plaque.

The Florentine shooter carried the Italian colours to the top in both London 2012 and Rio 2016, where he won three gold and one silver medal in the 10m air rifle and 3-position 50m rifle. His list of honours also includes a world title and three European titles. A forerunner of the dual career, he now holds the prestigious position of sports director of the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.

“This honour makes me proud, even if it is a strange feeling to see my name among the greats of sport,” Campriani remarked. “It’s all down to having impostor syndrome, a psychological condition that I had even when I was winning gold medals. It has always been my good fortune because I always felt the need for a gap to be filled, which led me to look for ways to improve. I had it as an athlete but also today as the sports director of the Los Angeles Games: on the one hand it is a weakness but on the other hand a great extra weapon. I thank the shooting family, the federation, CONI, and those who have contributed to my career. This plaque is a recognition of all this hard work,” the Italian athlete concluded.

“We absolutely had to dedicate a tile to Campriani,” Malagò remarked. “We are all grateful to him for the feats he has accomplished and I have enjoyed his Olympic gold medals like crazy. I'm pleased that the Americans chose him for such a prominent role. It’s safe to say that after Los Angeles 2028 no road will be closed to him, more than ever in the world of sport,” concluded the CONI president.

Collari d'Oro 2023 recipients honoured Malagò: “Sport one of Italy’s great strengths, three years of unique results”

• AT THE FORO ITALICO

Another record-breaking year, another season at the top. As 2023, the pre-Olympic year, draws to a close, Italian sport gathered at the traditional Collari d'Oro event to honour the champions who have established themselves across international stages. Italian sport’s well-deserved celebration was held in the Palazzo H’s Palestra Monumentale, inside the Foro Italico University, venue of the Collari d’Oro award ceremony. After the absence for health reasons of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister for Sport and Youths Andrea Abodi, CONI President Giovanni Malagò, the President of the Italian Paralympic Committee Luca Pancalli, CONI Secretary General Carlo Mornati and the President of the CONI Benemerenze Commission Alessandra Sensini took the stage to present the highest honour of Italian sport to the awardees.

In his opening remarks, Malagò summed up this year, which represents a fundamental step towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. “In life, numbers do not always give the full picture,” he pointed out in his speech, “but in sport they almost always do. We have just seen a three-year period of results never achieved before in history. CONI oversees 48 federations, there are 382 different disciplines. There are rules and regulations, dynamics for the practical implementation of the sport. Italy is the country that puts most effort into not only doing sport but doing so to a competitive standard. It is our strength but also our weakness, but it is a model that leaves no one behind. We have, therefore, won medals in disciplines you would never imagine. We can tell the same story in Paris, especially thanks to ‘new’ sports as the results. Italian sport is a leading strength of the country, and we are very proud of this.”

All this is leading up to one goal: the Games in France next year. “It is an honour and a privilege to be Italy’s Head of Delegation to Paris 2024,” said Mornati. “We’re in the final straight, there are seven months to go: it is the most important stage, the one in which the efforts of the last few years come to fruition. The athletes know they have our full support. See you in Paris.”

“We are used to working in silence, aware of the difficulties,” explained Pancalli, “but when you find the right people, the results follow. We are here to celebrate the excellence of Italian sport, the excellence of a system. Every athlete starts out from their family unit, from those who support them. The federations are doing an extraordinary job. Our system has proved once again that it is capable of excelling: there are countries that come to Italy to study us. This should be an added source of pride for all of us, because we have all earned it. What we have produced is positive not only for sport, but for the country.”

“Handing over the Collari is always an occasion of great pride and admiration,” stressed Olympian Sensini. “Sport creates unique strengths, unique people with skills that are not studied but forged on the field. Thanks to all the youngsters for flying our flag high in the world.”

President Malagò closed the ceremony: “It was a beautiful day that repays all the commitment, difficulties and bitter disappointments that have been overcome. We are pleased with the compliments received, some unexpected. Our work is recognised. Top sport is grassroots sport: you start from the bottom to get to the top”.

Photo Ferraro/Pagliaricci CONI

Italian sports Walk of Fame welcomes Tania Cagnotto: “Immense satisfaction, it will be here forever”

• CONI

The firmament of Italian sport welcomes a new star. Tania Cagnotto (photo Simone Ferraro), the most successful Italian diver of all time, has been honoured with a place on the Walk of Fame at the Foro Italico.

Inheriting her parents’ profession (her father Giorgio and mother Carmen, who were also divers, were great protagonists at national and international level in the 1970s), the Bolzano athlete, born in 1985, boasts a silver and bronze Olympic medal among her achievements won at the Rio 2016 Games. Furthermore, during her extraordinary career, the South Tyrolean has won 10 world medals (including one gold) and 29 European medals (including 20 golds).

“I am very grateful and proud,” admitted Tania Cagnotto, who unveiled the new plaque with her name on it in the presence of CONI President Giovanni Malagò, General Secretary Carlo Mornati and Vice Presidents Silvia Salis and Claudia Giordani. It gives me immense satisfaction, it will be here forever. I always gladly return here to the home of sport, where I have spent my life. Now things have changed, I am mainly a mum. But I am open to new adventures.”

“A great among the greats,” was Giovanni Malagò’s comment, sealing an unforgettable day for a legend of Italian sport.

Piedmont wins the Trofeo CONI Winter 2023! Next stop Abruzzo for the forthcoming edition

• TRIUMPH AT HOME

Piedmont is the winner of the Trofeo CONI Winter 2023. The team of the Regional Committee of President Stefano Mossino triumphed at home in the second winter edition of the leading Italian multi-sports event for under-14s, held on the snow and ice of Turin, Bardonecchia, Pinerolo and Pragelato. Lombardy came second, while Trentino completed the podium in third place. Piedmont rejoices at the end of three days of great spectacle, which began with the opening ceremony on Friday, attended by CONI President Giovanni Malagò, and during which videos of Federica Brignone, Sofia Goggia, Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii were screened. Then came Saturday’s show with competitions featuring nine disciplines from the Italian Winter Sports Federation and the Italian Ice Sports Federation; it was also the first time that the Italian Triathlon Federation hit the snow, for a winter triathlon demonstration competition. Sunday was dedicated to the final races and the closing ceremony, at the end of which Cecilia D'angelo, Head of the CONI Territorial Directorate, announced the winning team. "Thanks to the athletes and to all those who contributed to delivering this splendid event," Stefano Mossino declared. “They were three fantastic, exciting and challenging days. Piedmont answered the national call and the desire to host sport in the best possible way in the 2006 Olympic venues. The greatest message this trophy leaves us with is the smiles and beauty of these youngsters. And we have shown that we can achieve great things with a united team. Sport works because it functions like one big team. And the CONI team makes wishes and dreams come true." Then came the words of Claudia Giordani, Vice President of CONI: "The Trofeo CONI is a first-class event; an occasion that we all cherish. The youngsters have made us proud: they are an example of how dreams can light up every day of our lives. In sport, you will always find support and the opportunity to be together". Piedmont succeeds Trentino, winner of the first edition in 2022, in the roll of honour of the Trofeo CONI Winter. Piedmont also becomes the first regional committee to have won both editions – summer and winter – of the Trofeo CONI (it won in 2015 in Lignano Sabbiadoro and in 2018 in Rimini). Finally, the baton was passed from Piedmont to Abruzzo, represented by the President of the CONI Regional Committee, Enzo Imbastaro. Indeed, Abruzzo will be the region hosting the third edition of the Trofeo CONI Winter, in 2024.