Summit in Bonn, Bid Vice-President Luca Pancalli meets the CEO of the IPC Xavier Gonzalez

Today marked the first meeting of the Rome 2024 bid committee with the International Paralympic Committee, as bid Vice-President (and Italian Paralympic Committee President) Luca Pancalli met with IPC CEO Xavier Gonzalez and Integration Director Thanos Kostopoulos in Bonn.

Rome will forever be linked with the Paralympic movement as the 1960 Games in the Eternal City marked the first time that the Paralympics and Olympics were held side-by-side. Rome 2024 continues to embrace the values of inclusion and participation represented by the Paralympics and bring them to the fore in activities planned to promote the Italian bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2024.

In the meeting, Pancalli presented the venues earmarked to host the Paralympic disciplines and discussed the many initiatives attended recently by Paralympic athletes, such as Oxana Corso and Alessio Sarri (meeting with school administrators on October 8th) and Annalisa Minetti (yesterday with the students of the University Tor Vergata). These initiatives, the Committee pointed out, will allow Rome to create a real legacy in the application period, with training sessions organised in schools to deepen understanding of the Olympic and Paralympic values to young people.

Great appreciation and interest was also expressed by the IPC towards the start-up and training centre under construction in EUR (southern area of Rome) City of Paralympic Sports Tre Fontane (Three Fountains), which will become a world-leading venue. 

Vice-President Pancalli commented: "This demonstrates the seriousness of Rome also in Paralympic terms"

Guadagnini new Director of Communications

Fabio Guadagnini, 51, will be the new Director of Communications of the Rome 2024 Committee. He will head up all press and social activity from Rome to promote the Italian candidature to the 2024 Olympic Games. Guadagnini, a journalist since 1993, joins the bid from Fox Sports Italy, where he was Director and Vice Chairman. Guadagnini has Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature from the IULM University in Milan.

Montezemolo and Malagò meet students of the University of Rome Tor Vergata

The reasons, the vision and the objectives of the project of Rome’s bid to host the XXXIII Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the key points of the meeting dedicated to the students of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, that will take place on Monday, October 19th, at 10 am, at the lecture theatre of the Economics Faculty.

Rome 2024 President Luca di Montezemolo, CONI President Giovanni Malagò, the Dean of the University of Rome Tor Vergata Giuseppe Novelli and Beniamino Quintieri, of the Economics Faculty of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, will attend the event. 

Two Italian athletes that competed in the 2012 London Summer Olympics will also attend the event: Valerio Aspromonte, fencer and Gold medallist in London 2012, and Annalisa Minetti, bronze medal in 1500 meters at London Paralympic Games.

Declaration by President Malagò

Giovanni Malagò, President of CONI, issued the following declaration:

"Following my electoral mandate in this quadrennium (and hopefully also in the next, having obtained the backing of my peers), I am absolutely devoted to supporting the organisation and reform of Italian sport to the best of my capabilities, making it more and more one of the shining lights of our Country.

Rome, my city, which I love, deserves a government that is up to this challenge, for the good of all and for national prestige. We are working to try and bring the 2024 Olympics in the Capital of Italy. This, and only this, is my vision for the future."

The Olympic education reaches schools

A new initiative will see more 460,000 Italian children receive an education in Olympic values over the next two years as part of Rome’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Rome 2024 Organizing Committee, with President Luca di Montezemolo, and the Regional Education Office (Urs), represented by General Director Gildo De Angelis, today signed a partnership agreement, in front of a parterre of 300 school administrators, with the objective to define and implement a program of Olympic education among young people and children that will take place during Rome's path to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2024.

According to the agreement, the Rome 2024 Committee will cooperate with educational institutions on the following objectives:

• Helping to improve national sport activity among young people from early school age (including children and young people with disabilities).

• Promoting healthy lifestyles and nutrition

• Valuing diversity and social inclusion, promoting gender equality, educating against all forms of bullying and violence

• Building, from primary school age up, conscious new generations and to prevent, in this way, violence, bullying and racial and gender discrimination

• Organising meetings with teachers on issues related to the Olympics, and providing them the right tools to explain to children the transformative effect that the Games will have on their city.

A joint working group made up of three representatives of Usr Lazio and three of the Rome 2024 Committee, which will cooperate with CONI, School Policies Department of the Common of Rome and CIP will work together to reach this goal . If Rome is chosen to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the program, which also involves the supply of multimedia kits, organization of competitions and workshops, will be extended to a national level. An important initiative, explained Montezemolo, because school is the most important thing in society: "It allows everyone to start from the same condition and compete on equal terms in the most important race, the race of life". "This is the starting point of a journey - said de Angelis - to be developed over the next two years through the implementation of initiatives aimed at the accomplishment of the educational value of sport giving the opportunity to our students to develop a new sport culture".

"Hurray for Sport", BNL and CONI support the practice of sport

BNL, part of the BNP Paribas Group, continues developing solutions for the daily life of people and launches the “Prestito BNL W lo Sport” ("Hurray for Sport BNL loan"), a product to finance, in a sustainable way and with special conditions, the expenses to access sport training or to acquire equipment for all those who live sport as an important element in their life: not only athletes but also young people, families and university students, or those who simply do a sport in their free time.

In Italy*, in addition to 4.5 million registered athletes, more than 18 million people devote themselves on a regular basis to sport activities on an amateur level and 16 million do some physical exercise (like swimming, trekking or cycling) in their free time. For its value in the physical and psychological growth of the individual, sport practice is very common amongst young people and family plays a very influential role: if parents are sedentary, only four teenagers out of ten practice a sport, while in those families in which parents enjoy sport, the relationship is of eight out ten.

For families, practising a sport is demanding not only from a physical perspective, but also in terms of time and costs. The “Prestito BNL W lo Sport” ("Hurray for Sport BNL loan") was indeed born to help the dissemination and practice of sport, with the belief that a society that enjoys sport is also a healthier society. The loan meets the need to spread over the year the costs that normally are concentrated in autumn and that could entail budget difficulties. It is possible to get up to three thousand Euros with a particularly good interest rate (3.97% APR), without credit check costs and repayable within a maximum term of 12 months: for 1000 Euros, for example, the monthly instalment is 85.10 Euros and the total interest is 21.30 Euros, on a year-long loan.

The "Hurray for Sport BNL loan" is the result of the collaboration with CONI, with which the Bank has a strong relationship lasting for more than 70 years, and which, from this year, has become even stronger with the partnership for the Olympic Games of 2016 in Brazil. BNL and CONI share a history made of momentous events, such as the Rome Olympics of 1960 and the Football World Cup "Italia '90";

unique initiatives such as the sponsorship for the Winter Olympics at Nagano in 1998, or the "BNL Cerchi e stelle" (BNL Circles and Stars) project, supporting five female athletes of the Italian National team (Erica Alfridi, Deborah Gelisio, Josefa Idem, Ylenia Scapin e Alessandra Sensini) at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, to quote only the most significant. Furthermore, BNL is the partner of 44 Sport Federations and the Bank of the Italian Paralympic Committee and of the main Federations connected to it.

"In a changing world, our Sport activity is to make yours possible" is the catchphrase of the new campaign signed by the TBWA\Italia company. Creativity is aimed at highlighting, through images that bring together sport and daily life, the care shown by the bank for the spread of sport culture, but also the capacity of the Bank to create transparent products and services, which are practical and useful, making small and large projects happen in the everyday life of people.

"BNL & CONI - train our tomorrow" is, instead, the payoff of the campaign: a stamp of quality that will accompany all initiatives of the partnership between the Bank and CONI.

The media campaign approach is composed of a planning on the national press and by posters on the road and in the underground in Rome and Milan and in the BNL branches across Italy, together with the presence on the digital channels and social media of the Bank and on Twitter, with the hashtag #alleniamoildomani.

Finally, on the toll-free telephone number 800.98.99.99 and at the page coni.bnl,it, especially created for the initiative, it is possible to obtain all information on the product and book an appointment to discuss it further with a consultant at a BNL branch.

The Schwazer case: TNA, the Italian Anti-Doping Court, rejects the appeal to cancel his disqualification

The second section of the Italian Anti-Doping Court, chaired by Luigi Fumagalli, rejected the appeal presented by Alex Schwazer requesting his disqualification to be cancelled. The decision was based upon article 4.6.1.2 CSA: the article sets out, in accordance to article 10.6.1.1 WADC, that CONI NADO (now NADO ITALIA) can cancel a portion of the period of disqualification "only with the consent" of WADA and the relevant International Federation. Negative opinions were provided by both IAAF on 14 July 2015 and WADA on 6 August 2015, while any evaluation remained unchanged concerning the existence of an active collaboration to investigate violations of anti-doping regulations between these agencies. The court also ordered the decision to be communicated to the  Anti-Doping Prosecutor's Office (UPA), to WADA and to IAAF.

Kostner eligible to compete in 2016 after setting dispute with WADA and the Italian NADO

The disciplinary case involving the Italian figure skating athlete, Ms. Carolina Kostner, the World Anti-Doping (WADA) and the Ufficio di Procura Antidoping (UPA) of the NADO Italia relating to an alleged violation of the Italian Anti-Doping Rules by Ms. Kostner, has been settled by means of an agreement between the parties.

On 30 July 2013, a Doping Control Officer (DCO) attempted to conduct a doping control on Ms. Kostner’s the partner, Mr. Alex Schwazer at the home of Ms. Kostner. Ms. Kostner falsely advised the DCO that Mr. Schwazer was not at the premises. Ms. Kostner has since recognized that she committed a serious error of judgment by misleading the doping control officer, and she has accepted that her conduct violated the Anti-Doping Rules.

The parties have agreed to increase the sixteen-month sanction imposed at first instance by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal by five months. The resulting twenty one month ineligibility period is backdated to 1 April 2014 based on procedural delays that are not attributable to Ms. Kostner. Ms. Kostner will therefore be eligible to participate in competitions from 1 January 2016.

The Rome 2024 Olympic dream is now online

• OLYMPIC GAMES

From today, Rome’s vision for hosting the 2024 Olympic Games is online. The teaser version of the website www.2024roma.org gives the world the first taste of Rome’s exciting plans to deliver the greatest festival of sport.

The website includes a new video which emphasises the beauty and culture of this ancient city. In the film, petals carry the audience on a journey through Rome, flying gracefully over the most beautiful corners of the city, revealing monuments such as the Colisseum, sports facilities and green spaces. The film also deliberately focuses on children - the generation who will become the star Olympic athletes of 2024. These are at the heart of our mission to bring the Olympic Games to Rome for the first time since 1960.

The site also offers the first elements of Rome 2024’s vision, which begins with a famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt:

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

And Rome believes in it. The city’s dream, explained in the vision, is articulated between the desire to give the world an Olympic Games that revives the values ​​of friendship between peoples and that tears down old and new walls and boundaries throwing a bridge to peace.

The dream is also to give today's children a great celebration in their own home; to offer a magical stage and the unparalleled beauty and art of Rome to the Games and, finally, to forge new champions and athletes who will write the history of the games. The time is now.  

Because, to quote Mattie JT Stepanek: "Although the future seems far away, it actually starts right now."

School year opening ceremony, Malagò in Naples with 10 athletes. Mattarella: more sport, more legality

This morning, in the "Sannino-Petriccione" school, in the Ponticelli neighbourhood in Naples, the opening ceremony for the 2015-2016 school year took place, with the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who wanted to send out a strong message by choosing a new place for the ceremony, departing from the consolidated habit of hosting it at the Quirinal Palace (Palace of the President of the Republic).    

The President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò, and the President of the Paralympic Committee, Luca Pancalli, both took part in the event.  The Head of State and the Minister of Education, University and Research, Stefania Giannini, delivered their message to students and teachers, with their best wishes for the new school year. "Education is key to the civic spirit of a Country. You must devote yourselves to growing the hope in building a better world" was one of the key passages of the speech by President Mattarella. The Head of State also emphasised the role of sport in the education of young people. "Sport can help school a lot, as can be seen by champions that are with us today: where there is greater dedication to sport, there is more legality".

President Malagò emphasised the closeness of the Head of State to competitive sports.  "Day after day, President Mattarella demonstrates a real interest and receptiveness for what concerns the world of sport and this makes us proud, his closeness is remarkable and means a lot to us. We went through a lot of criticism with regards to sport in schools, and, as you know, CONI's role in schools is not formally recognised, but we wanted to do our part in all honesty, with efforts that where not only financial in nature, but also organisational and infrastructural".

On the podium, amongst others, there were also champions of the Italian National team, known as the Azzurri ("the Blues"): Rossella Fiamingo, Diego Occhiuzzi and Luca Curatoli (fencing), Clemente Russo and Irma Testa (boxing), Alessandro Velotto (water polo), Giovanni Esposito, Antonio Esposito and Biagio D'Angelo (judo) e Bebe Vio (paralympic fencing).

The athletes recounted their recent feats (above all Rossella Fiamingo and Bebe Vio, who have recently become world champions in their disciplines), looking ahead towards Rio 2016. Clemente Russo also highlighted his personal record: he will be the first Italian boxer - the fourth in the world - to take part in four editions of the Olympic Games.

The event, which opened with the national hymn, was led by Fabrizio Frizzi, who presented different initiatives organised by schools on immigration, integration, justice, social engagement, music and sport. Around 2,000 pupils from schools all over Italy were selected on the basis of projects and learning activities devised with their teachers on the themes of interculture, integration, legal education, participation in school life. During the ceremony, webcam connections were established with nine Italian schools that made an advanced use of technology in teaching. Amongst the celebrities present was actor Flavio Insinna, singer Lorenzo Fragola and astronaut Samantha Cristoferetti.