Summer EYOF Maribor 2023 Flame of Peace lit at the Ara Pacis altar

• IN ROME

The Summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) Maribor 2023 Flame of Peace was lit yesterday at the Ara Pacis altar in Rome.

European Olympic Committees (EOC) President Spyros Capralos presented President of the Slovenian Olympic Committee Franjo Bobinac and Mayor of the Municipality of Maribor Aleksander Saša Arsenovič with the EOC Olive Tree and the Flame of Peace, which signify the peaceful competition that will take place in July. The Ara Pacis altar was built as a symbol of peace and unity.

With almost 50 days to go until the Opening Ceremony on 23 July, Slovenia’s former Ski Cross World Champion Filip Flisar kept the Flame at the end of a memorable ceremony, which was hosted by five-time Italian national figure-skating champion Valentina Marchei.

As he looked ahead to the EYOF, President Capralos thanked the Organising Committee and the Slovenian officials for their preparation and for ensuring that Europe’s best young athletes are able to compete in a top level international multi-sport event.

He said: “Slovenia will become one of five countries to have hosted both a winter and summer EYOF and I must thank the Slovenian Olympic Committee, the local authorities in Maribor and the Slovenian government for their invaluable support.

“Your dedication to Maribor 2023 will see young athletes fulfil their dreams, make lifelong memories and, most importantly, grow as people thanks to their experiences.

“That is the aim of these events. As well as competing, the young people who participate have the chance to learn about the Olympic values and different cultures. And just as they did in Italy in January, our European Young Olympic Ambassadors will play an important role in making this happen in Maribor.”

Amongst the international guests from the Olympic movement attending the ceremony was also Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) Deputy Vice President Silvia Salis and an EOC delegation, including Vice President Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, Secretary General Raffaele Pagnozzi and Chair of the EYOF Commission Líney Rut Halldórsdóttir.

In his speech President of the Slovenian Olympic Committee Franjo Bobinac said: “Slovenia is extremely proud and honoured to host the summer edition of European Youth Olympic Festival. We are looking forward not only to host a great international sports Festival but also the biggest multisport event ever organised in our country.
“As said many times, sport has the power to change the world, but it is also true that sport talks to the younger generations in a language they understand the best. And EYOF is about the youth.
“Our organising teams from the Municipality of Maribor and Olympic Committee of Slovenia, with high support by the EOC staff, will continue to work as a strong, united team and they will surely deliver an amazing event this summer in Maribor.”

Mayor of Maribor Aleksander Saša Arsenovič said: “EYOF is not only about sports, but also about volunteering, bringing together young people from different countries and building networks to promote sports, peace, friendship and understanding.
“I am sure that some of these young visitors, athletes and volunteers will discover our beautiful city as their new home. Maribor is a green, sustainable, modern and safe city. A city of sports, culture and festivals, a college city, a centre for innovation and creativity!”

The 17th Summer EYOF takes place in Maribor between 23 and 29 July with more than 3,600 athletes competing in 11 sports.

Press Statement

• IOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a workshop with the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) and its partners from the Region of Lombardy and the Autonomous Province of Trento, to explore their interest in hosting a future edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games. This follows the decision by CONI, Lombardy and Trentino in March to enter a non-committal Continuous Dialogue with the IOC.

As part of its collaborative approach to electing Olympic and Paralympic hosts, the IOC works in partnership with potential hosts to assist them to develop sustainable projects, offering the best possible experience for athletes and spectators and maximum benefits for local communities.
The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are the highest-level multi-sports event for young elite athletes, combining sport, innovation and a purpose-driven festival. Hosting the YOG can be catalysed to accelerate regional or national youth and youth sport development strategies, to promote youth-related matters such as education, gender equality, health and inclusion, to empower young people with new experiences and skills and to innovate in sports events delivery.

The Olympic Preparation Centre in Livigno undergoes improvements, Mornati and Pellegrini inaugurate the Olympic swimming pool

• CONI

A swimming pool at altitude to inspire Olympic dreams. Today, at the CONI Olympic Preparation Centre (CPO) in Livigno, the new 50-metre pool was inaugurated, which will allow Italian swimmers to better prepare for the forthcoming international challenges, starting with Paris 2024.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by the CONI General Secretary, Carlo Mornati, the Mayor of Livigno, Remo Galli, the IOC member, Federica Pellegrini, who presented Livigno’s new mascot called “Spolly”, the President of the Tourist Promotion and Development Company, Luca Moretti, the Head of the Olympic Preparation Office, Alessio Palombi, the national swimming team, the Olympic snowboard champion Michela Moioli, the track cycling Olympians Elia Viviani and Filippo Ganna, the European 10,000 metres runner Yemaneberhan Crippa and athletes from other disciplines linked to the Valtellina resort such as Jole Galli (skicross), Maurizio Bormolini (snowboarding) and Giacomo Bormolini (telemark). Also present were Livigno’s councillor for sport, Marina Claoti, the Undersecretary for Sport and Youth in the Region of Lombardy, Lara Magoni, and, joining remotely, Antonio Rossi, City integration coordinator in Lombardy for Milano Cortina 2026 and kayak Olympian.

The CPO, the result of the memorandum of understanding signed in 2022 between CONI and the Azienda di Promozione e Sviluppo Turistico di Livigno, joined those at Acqua Acetosa (Rome), Formia and Tirrenia in October. And as of today, it officially has an Olympic swimming pool, which, built in the new space known as the ‘Federica Pellegrini Swimming Area’, complements the existing 25-metre pool. This is yet another tool at the disposal of Italian sport, further enhancing a centre that is unique in Italy and allowing relevant Olympic and High Level Preparation athletes to train at altitude, on the highest plateau in Europe.

“This is a moment that really goes back a long way; it is a journey that has lasted 15 years,” stressed CONI Secretary General Carlo Mornati. “There are so many Olympic medallists here today. What has been established here is significant. Livigno is a very important community and we have welcomed what it has offered to us over the years. The swimming pool is the icing on the cake and allows us to plan future Olympics, including the summer Olympics, with a certain confidence, because this is the only centre in Europe with similar characteristics. This facility is a strong demonstration of the synergy that can exist between institutions when there is willingness. I wish to thank everyone, and even the presence of Milano Cortina 2026 here is significant, as we are fast approaching the big date: everything that the Foundation is doing together with Livigno will be fundamental for the success of the Games. I want to wish all the athletes the best of luck: we are in the middle of the competitive season, there are the qualifications for the Games, the European Championships, the World Championships. We hope to see many of you in Paris.”

“The Olympic Preparation Centres,” added Mornati, “exist in symbiosis with the Institute of Science and Sports Medicine, which supports so many federations. The idea, the final frontier, is to be able to have a permanent centre here in Livigno.”

“This is a great thrill for us,” admitted Livigno Mayor Remo Galli. “This structure had become something of a burden for Livigno, we are on a common path with the citizens and the institutions;

everyone has helped us to give an identity to the structure, which is now a reference point for our athletes. I wish to thank CONI and Mr Mornati, who has helped us from the beginning, as has the Region of Lombardy. This pool is for young people; we want to allow them to follow their passions.”

The new pool, disinfected with low-chlorinated hypochlorite, produced on site using electrolytic salt-transformation technology to reduce chlorination waste products and consequently improve the swimmers’ well-being, has 12 competition model starting blocks (6 on each side), with a 5-position track start platform. Two movable decks have been positioned to allow the pool to be used in different modules, which can be modified in minutes. To improve safety, the pool was also equipped with the Angel Eye system, with 20 underwater cameras that record images of the swimmers in real time and identify dangerous situations. In the event of an alert, a signal is sent to the pool attendants via smartwatch technology.

Underwater cameras are also used for technical analysis of the swimmers. Coaches are equipped with tablets on which they can view images of the swimmers directly from the edge of the pool to analyse their technique in order to improve their performance, or they can view the videos from a large monitor located on the edge of the pool or also upload the images to a USB stick and view them later. The underwater analysis can be carried out over the entire length of the pool, from the starting dive to the turns to the finishing sprint.

“We have achieved another amazing goal, the result of people who really believed in a project. In front of me I have many champions and a beautiful place like Livigno, among the top ten in Europe as a winter sports destination. It is fitting that the Olympic Preparation Centre is here, because Livigno will be the protagonist of the Milano Cortina Games. With this pool and with Federica Pellegrini’s backing, no one will be able to beat us,” said Lara Magoni, Undersecretary for Sport and Youth in the Region of Lombardy.

“This project’s origins go back a long way – years ago we started dreaming of being able to do something for top athletes. It is really nice to be able to train in Livigno: the facilities are fantastic, as is the welcome. Congratulations to the municipal administration who believed in this project and also to CONI,” said Antonio Rossi.

Livigno’s CPO is located in the Centro Sportivo Aquagranda, which, with its 10,000 square metres, is one of the largest sports and wellness facilities in Europe. The Centre has been used for years for the training camps and programmes of several Italian National Teams, but in the last year it has become even more of a reference point for CONI and its National Sports Federations, thanks to the agreement signed between the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Azienda di Promozione e Sviluppo Turistico di Livigno, which allows the organisation of meetings and training sessions at the sports and accommodation facilities of the municipality of Livigno at special rates.

The facility, located at an altitude of 1,816 metres, can host various disciplines, including athletics, football, winter sports, triathlon and, of course, swimming, which, with the construction of the Olympic pool, will also be able to prepare athletes for challenges in full-length pools.

And it was Livigno – the Olympic venue for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, underlining its multidisciplinary nature – that was the base for Federica Pellegrini’s successes in her last seasons, including the two world championship golds in the 200 freestyle, won in Budapest 2017 and Gwangju 2019.

“I am really thrilled. This winter we met to inaugurate the Centre without the pool being ready, today instead we can launch the first 50-metre pool at altitude. It’s really a privilege, an honour to be here to see one of the jewels in Italy’s crown, after having seen high-altitude pools all over the world. It will be a key facility for the athletes. And my relationship with Livigno will also continue: this will be the home of my Academy for the next two years. I am really proud to see the growth of such a facility and a sports city like this,” stated Federica Pellegrini.

During the ceremony, the Municipality of Livigno and the Sporting Club awarded scholarships to the students/athletes who distinguished themselves over the winter season.

CONI and FIGC athletic trainer, Claudio Donatelli, explained the importance of this CPO at altitude which – from cycling to swimming – contributed to six medals for Italia Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

“Every athlete knows what it takes to improve: great training and a good environment, which can stimulate changes at a physiological and blood level. Being in the mountains helps greater production of red blood cells, meaning we have more oxygen in our muscles. But the most important thing that I have discovered in the dynamic and welcoming environment of Livigno, is the psychological element: building volume in the mountains helps develop resilience, the ability to overcome difficulties,” declared Donatelli.

The “Road to Paris 2024”, will increasingly pass through Livigno.

Casa Italia presented ahead of Paris 2024: located in the ‘heart’ of Bois de Boulogne in the name of Olympism. Malagò: tribute to de Coubertin

• AT THE EMBASSY

Italia Team will have its Hospitality House for Paris 2024, in the heart of Bois de Boulogne, at one of Olympism’s most symbolic places: the Pré Catelan. The announcement, made today at the press conference at the Italian Embassy in Paris, revealed the location of CONI’s Hospitality House for the Summer Olympic Games, set to take place in the French capital from Friday, 26 July to Sunday, 11 August next year.

In the evocative setting of the Embassy’s Sicilian Theatre, the agreement was made official for Italy’s Casa Italia, first conceived on the occasion of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, becoming over the years, part of the team and country’s Olympic identity.

The conference was attended by Emanuela D'Alessandro, Italian Ambassador to France, Giovanni Malagò, CONI President, Olivier Voarick, CEO Maison LENÔTRE and Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Games Foundation.

Casa Italia will be based in the Pré Catelan, a Napoleon III-style pavilion in the surrounds of the city’s largest park, the Bois de Boulogne, five minutes from the Champs Elysées, in a suggestive setting with well-lit rooms due to the many large windows and adjacent gardens.

Inaugurated in 1856, the Pré Catelan was an immediate success, quickly becoming one of the most frequented venues in the French capital, but it was on the evening of 23 June 1894 that the stylish pavilion became indelibly stamped in the pages of international sporting history.

A few hours earlier, at the first Olympic Congress held in Paris, the Comité International Olympique was conceived, with Baron Pierre de Coubertin who, within the walls of La Sorbonne University, had illustrated his most ambitious project: to re-establish the ancient Olympic Games. On that day, a milestone was reached in Olympic history with a new era set in motion, which was celebrated with a sumptuous banquet set up in one of the twelve reception rooms of the Pré Catelan.

One hundred and thirty years later, the Casa Italia Paris 2024 project fittingly gets underway from France’s cradle of Olympism, on a journey in which we reflect on the friendship and fraternity of those who journey alongside us towards the future, but also those who have passed before and whose common identity helped forge a nation.

“I am very pleased to host the signing of the project for the construction of Casa Italia for the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024. A ‘historic’ occasion we could say as it is the first time in CONI history that the agreement takes place in the city hosting the Olympic Games,” said Emanuela D’Alessandro, Ambassador of Italy to France. “Sport is a central element in international and diplomatic relations and is a tool with which to strengthen and improve them. Because, as was recently outlined by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani, ‘Sport unites us and is an example of Italy’s organisational capacity and enviable industrial sector’.”

“I have come to Paris several times to make inspections, we have seen different places but from the beginning I thought that Pré Catelan was not only the best place for Casa Italia, but ‘the’ place,” noted CONI President Giovanni Malagò. “There is a romantic history that links Pré Catelan with antiquity. In this place Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s intuition about the Olympic Games was celebrated as a brilliant, far-sighted idea; after all, he was a dreamer. Casa Italia today is a registered and internationally recognised brand. We have come a long way since Los Angeles 1984: I am thinking in particular of the most recent editions, in Tokyo and Beijing, in a surreal context we were able to provide a safe refuge to our athletes, technicians, federations and the companies that have invested in us. Casa Italia is an example of the Committee’s true excellence.”

“You have fulfilled a dream for us too. We are really thrilled,” underlined Olivier Voarick, CEO Maison LENÔTRE. “The great Paris 2024 event is approaching and I’m very fortunate to be associated with a great country like Italy. We have the ambition to stand together, to be true to the values of LENÔTRE and Casa Italia. We want to be unique and we will be unique. We want to be inspired and generous. We want to receive many people every night but we will be environmentally friendly. And we also have the ambition to unite the two best gastronomies in the world. We want to organise one of the most beautiful Casa Italia of any of the Olympics.”

“Sport can help men to overcome their limitations, but also bring them together and understand each other better, regardless of their differences,” argued de Coubertin in a France that had made fraternity one of the pillars of the nation born out of the Revolution.

Of the three terms that give life to the motto “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”, it is the latter that leaves the most room for imagination. “Friendship is the true homeland”, wrote Joseph Roth. And fraternity links peoples, just as friendship links individuals: on the competitive Olympics field, in the gesture that becomes a model and an education.

The idea of Casa Italia Paris 2024 encompasses all this. It will be entitled Ensemble and will define the concept of an ensemble, at various levels, as a necessary condition for fostering collaboration, community and reason.

Ensemble, understood not only as the condition of proximity and a meeting point, but as a term that brings with it impartiality, resulting from togetherness. A search for agreement and harmony that is indispensable for achieving a common goal.

This is why Ensemble is Sport, the protagonist of the Olympics. Ensemble is the community of athletes and the peoples taking part in it. Ensemble is building the common good. Ensemble is sharing. Ultimately, through all the means we have available today, Ensemble is social and environmental sustainability: issues which, only when tackled collectively, can results be achieved. Ensemble is working to build peace, and lastly, Ensemble is the Olympics, the noblest expression of brotherhood.

Casa Italia will bring the value of Ensemble by means of art, architecture, design, and hospitality; celebrating athletes in a context where each element will be able to tell how the fraternal utopia can become a tangible reality – thanks especially to the Olympics.

This is why the unifying theme of interwovenness has been chosen for the décor of the installations at Pré Catelan, expressed through the presence of fabrics and textures, whose very nature – by means of knotted lines – signify the value of “building together”. In line with these principles, a sequence of spaces has been envisaged within the pavilion, conceived as “a room within a room” in which, through interwoven threads, new dialogues open within the existing ones, based on principles of mutual exaltation and respect.

Design, one of Italy’s hallmark commodities around the world, a symbol of artisanship and attention to detail, will be in full function as it welcomes guests into the House, contributing to the accommodative experience that Italy always seeks to convey.

By means of works of art from contemporary Italian artists, present in all the rooms of the House, the Ensemble concept will be rendered visibly memorable. The artists featured will include Riccardo Previdi, Julie Polidoro, Fabio Viale, Marinella Senatore, Patrick Tuttofuoco, to name but a few.

Ensemble is also a sustainable project. Temporary set-ups often waste a great deal of energy and materials, but Casa Italia, which had already begun to address the issue of sustainability when it was set up in Tokyo in 2020, will now be designed with the intention of recovering and recycling all the materials involved.

Casa Italia, for a long time exclusively a hospitality venue, since 2016 has become a promotional hub for Italy, on a world stage with the unparalleled media impact generated by the Olympic Games.

Our history - from the Villanovan to the Etruscans, from the Renaissance to a multi-ethnic society, our geography and landscapes, our unique and incomparable places, art, literature, music, architecture, our villages, mountains, sea, animal and plant biodiversity, and science, are the elements underpinning the wonder of Casa Italia. A place where these excellences will find space to tell their story and to visually illustrate the uniqueness of Italy’s human, cultural and geophysical dimensions. All this without ever forgetting the true heart of the mission: the Italia Team athletes, who will live the most thrilling sporting experience of their lives and who are celebrated at Casa Italia.

The presentation of Casa Italia was held, for the first time in CONI history, in the host city, exactly a thousand days ahead of the forthcoming edition of the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina 2026, with Casa Italia Paris 2024 becoming a sort of prelude to the celebration of the next Italian Winter Olympics.

“For me it is a great honour; it is really exciting to be here,” admitted Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Games Foundation. “Today is an important date for us, there are one thousand days left until our Olympic Games. It seems like a lot but it is not, I can assure you. Today is also an occasion to celebrate our Games: they will be special because for the first time in history two cities are involved, Milan and Cortina, but also our valleys. In this scenario Casa Italia is an extraordinary communication and marketing platform for those who have decided to accompany us on this journey. Once the Paris Games are over, it will really be our turn: we will be present at Casa Italia, in Pré Catelan, to launch the Milano-Cortina Olympics.” (agc)

(Photo Xavier Granet CONI)

Erik Canovi nominated for the Piotr Nurowski prize as best young European athlete

• SKI MOUNTAINEERING

The European Olympic Committees (EOC) has announced the five finalists for the 8th Winter Edition of the Piotr Nurowski Best Young European Athlete Prize, which will be awarded at the 43rd EOC Seminar in Paris on 12 May 2023.

48 European National Olympic Committees (NOC) nominated an athlete between the ages of 14 and 18 for the prize and three of the Finalists were voted for by the NOCs.

The other two Finalists were nominated by an EOC panel of experts with voting for the winner due to take place during the Seminar before an Awards Ceremony in the evening.

The Piotr Nurowski Best Young European Athlete Prize is awarded to an athlete who has excelled in their sport and embodied the Olympic Values both inside and outside of competition over the past year.

The five nominees in alphabetical order are:

1. Ms Mia Brookes (GBR) Snowboarding

2. Mr Eric Canovi (ITA) Ski Mountaineering

3. Ms Nela Lopusanova (SVK) Ice Hockey

4. Ms Oleksandra Merkushyna (UKR) Biathlon

5. Ms Nina Pinzarrone (BEL) Figure Skating

Great British snowboarder Mia Brookes only turned 16 in January and became the youngest ever snowboard World Champion when she won the Slopestyle event in Bakuriani, Georgia in February. She was one of eight riders to earn an invite to the X Games and also became the first women to land a CAB1440 trick.

Eric Canovi has enjoyed a stunning start to 2023 in Ski Moutaineering with the Italian picking up two gold medals at the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) Friuli Venezia Giuli 2023, the Youth World Cup and in the U18 section at the World Championships respectively.

Slovakian Ice Hockey star Nela Lopusanova has earned plenty of praise for her performances at both the Winter EYOF, winning the player of the tournament award, and in the U18 World Championships, where she was named Most Valuable Player. Lopusanova was already playing in the top flight of women’s Ice Hockey in Slovakia ahead of her 15th birthday in February.

Despite the difficulties faced in her country and her training base in Chernihiv being destroyed, Ukrainian biathlete Oleksandra Merkushyna was able to win the gold medal in the 6km sprint race and the bronze medal in the 10km individual race at the Winter EYOF, as well as second in the super sprint qualification race at the Summer World Championships in Germany.

Nina Pinzarrone made the step up to the senior category in Figure Skating and showed no fear as her season’s best score earned the Belgian fifth place in the ISU European Championships, while she enjoyed success winning the IceLab International Cup and the Dragon Trophy’s junior categories.

The Piotr Nurowski Prize was created by the EOC in 2010 to remember Olympic great Piotr Nurowski, and through his example and his memory encourage young athletes to pursue a career in top class sport, as well as inspire future generations to adopt a healthy lifestyle based on Olympic Values and principles. As well as taking into account an athletes’ performance during the Winter EYOF and other championships, their conduct during events and their engagement with Olympic culture, values and friendship are just as important. It was first awarded to the Best Young European Athlete in 2011 and 2023 marks the eighth time that winter sports have had their own award.

New Olympic race walking event revealed

• ATHLETICS

World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee have agreed on the format for the new race walking team event that will make its debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay will feature 25 teams, each comprising one male and one female athlete, who will complete the marathon distance (42.195km) in four legs of approximately equal distance.

Each athlete will complete two legs of just over 10km each, alternating male, female, male, female.

The marathon distance was selected because of its existing popularity in athletics and link to the traditions of the Olympic Games.

“A Sparkling Future” wins the medal design competition for Gangwon 2024

• WINTER YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

“A Sparkling Future”, designed by 27-year-old Brazilian Dante Akira Uwai, has been announced as the winner of the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Gangwon 2024 medal design competition. This year’s contest saw a record-breaking 3,000 proposals submitted for the chance to design the obverse of the medals that will be handed out to the best athletes at next year’s YOG.

“A Sparkling Future” is a geometric interpretation of the Gangwon 2024 motto “grow together, shine forever”. The concept of growth is conveyed through vertical lines, while the diverse group of participants in the YOG is represented by elements created through cut-outs and texture changes. The variety of shapes and forms depicts diversity and how we can all contribute to peace and coexistence in difference ways. The polished finishes create dynamic little sparks of light, symbolising the desire to surpass ourselves and make positive changes in the world.

“I didn't want the medal to be a frame for a painting, only to be looked at - Uwai said -. I wanted it to be treated as a sculpture. Something that could be picked up, viewed from different angles, and felt for its texture. I think the medal has a lot of that and this was very important to me”. 

The young designer was unable to contain his emotion upon finding out: “Winning recognition like that, out of 3,000 submissions, is very important to me and I will cherish it for the rest of my life. In Brazil, there is a saying: ‘What differentiates an artist from other people is not talent, but a burning need to create’. That's something that resonates with me”.

Twenty-four-year-old Zakea Page of New Zealand was involved in the selection of the medals. Page’s creation, entitled “Beauty in Diversity”, was chosen for the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020. Speaking about the winning entry for Gangwon 2024, he said: “This design is a worthy winner and a beautiful interpretation of the values of the Youth Olympic Games. To me, it is reminiscent of the traditional paper lanterns that are a hallmark of Republic of Korea's celebration, hanging like canopies around temples and in parades... even dotted throughout the streets of Seoul”.

The runner-up in the medal design competition for Gangwon 2024 is 27-year-old artist Luisa Valencia Gomez of Colombia, who designed “The Road to Victory”. Third place goes to 32-year-old graphic designer Carlos Alejandro Castañeda Arenas of Mexico, with his design “Land of Dreams”.

The prototype made by Uwai will now be refined while in parallel, the reverse of the medal will be designed by the Gangwon 2024 YOG Organising Committee, and will reflect elements of Korean culture as well as the YOG emblem. 

The medal design competition for the Winter YOG Gangwon 2024 came to a close on 8 March, with an unprecedented number of designs received and countries participating. During the six-week period of the competition, over 3,000 medal designs were submitted from 120 countries, showcasing the creativity and talent of the designers. This was 10 times more entries than for the medal design competition for the previous Winter YOG. The top countries, in terms of submissions this year, were Mexico, India and the USA, followed by the Republic of Korea and Brazil.

The winning design will be used on the medals awarded to the athletes who finish on the podium at the fourth edition of the Winter YOG, to be held in Gangwon, Republic of Korea, from 19 January to 1 February 2024.

Training centres chosen for the Italvolley national teams for the Paris Games

• ROAD TO PARIS 2024

The two training camps for Italvolley's national teams for Paris 2024 have been finalised. In the event of qualification for the French Olympic Games, the men’s and women’s National Teams will train at the Gymnase Les Courtilles and the Palais des Sports Robert Charpentier respectively.

The agreements signed by CONI’s Olympic Preparation, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee and the respective sports centres were made official today by all parties involved.

The Gymnase Les Courtilles is located in the municipality of Asnières-sur-Seine, north of Paris, about 6.5 km from the Olympic Village. It consists of a multi-sports hall with a 500-seat grandstand.

The Palais des Sports Robert Charpentier, in contrast, is located in the south-east, in the municipality of Issy-les-Moulineaux, not far from the South Paris Arena that will host the official matches of the Olympic tournament. The centre has two multi-sports halls, one of which has two sliding grandstands with 2,228 seats.

(Photo: Paris 2024 – Nicolas Fagot)

10 years ago Pietro Mennea left us. A ceremony to remember him in the Stadium bearing his name

• ATHLETICS

Pietro Mennea left us suddenly one morning 10 years ago, leaving us all stunned and the world a poorer place. He was an athlete, a champion, a man, an incomparable husband. Ever since he used to run around the city of Barletta challenging the cars, he had speed on his mind, fuelling him to go ever further. From the dusty provincial fields he took a giant leap into the national team. He was a true idol for the whole of Italy, although he did everything he could to avoid being drawn into the star system of the 1980s. Shy and retiring, he was sparing with his appearances even on the track, especially after his two record-breaking years: the 1979 world 200 metres record (with a time of 19”72) that stood for 17 years and is still the current European record; and the 1980 gold medal in the Moscow Games.

Regardless of this he was considered a true hero, capable of competing in 5 Olympic Games, setting 2 world, 8 European and 33 national records. In 17 years he ran in 530 official competitions. He was also Italy’s flag-bearer at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Throughout his life he never stopped. After his on-track glory, he took to books, graduating four times, was also the author of numerous publications, started a law firm together with his beloved wife Manuela Olivieri and continued to battle against time even when the first symptoms of illness began to appear.

Critical of the major sports organisations, he was, nevertheless, generous with offering solutions to what he deemed to be their most pressing issues. History has since proven him right. Over the last ten years, the major sporting events have abandoned the gigantism of the past and have increasingly initiated projects aimed at a future legacy.

“In the end I am convinced” said Mennea “of just one thing: that in every sport the athletes are the only ones that count; they are the protagonists, unique and irreplaceable”. Of all his quotes, this one is surely destined to last forever.

A ceremony was held today commemorating this unrivalled hero of Italian and world sport at 10.01 a.m. (a tribute to his Italian record time in the 100 metres, only beaten in 2018 by Filippo Tortu) in the Stadio dei Marmi “Pietro Mennea” at the Foro Italico, named after the great man himself.

Track cycling: aerodynamic tests for seven Azzurri in the Wind Tunnel in Milan

• ROAD TO PARIS 2024

The two days of aerodynamic testing for the Italian national track cycling team, hosted at the Wind Tunnel at the Politecnico di Milano, have come to a conclusion.

Under the coordination of Roberto Amadio, team manager of the national teams, and Marco Villa, Head Coach of Italy’s track team, and with the support of technicians from CONI’s Institute of Medicine and Sports Science and the Politecnico di Milano, numerous tests were carried out relating to the athletes' seated positions at airspeeds of between 50 and 60 km/h.

These tests are particularly important ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. According to the technical regulations of the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), indeed, any changes to race equipment must be submitted, approved and frozen before the World Championships scheduled to get underway in Glasgow in August 2023.

Consequently, all possible combinations of seat positions and adjustments, handlebars, wheels, frames, helmets and sports clothing must be tested and optimised for each individual athlete by that deadline.

Martina Alzini, Elisa Balsamo, Rachele Barbieri, Chiara Consonni, Martina Fidanza, Manlio Moro and Letizia Paternoster took part in the tests.