Malagò meets Livio Berruti: the Rome 1960 Olympic champion celebrated on the Walk of Fame

A homage to history. Embracing the memories of the historic Olympic Games called Rome 1960 and projecting the desire to reach the dream called Rome 2024.  A journey through time, focussing on a champion without age: Livio Berruti. Today, at the Foro Italico, the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò, met the first Italian sprinter who won the golden medal at the Olympics, amongst the 100 Italian sport legends present in the Walk of Fame of Viale delle Olimpiadi. On 3 September 1960, at the Olympic Stadium, Berruti left his indelible signature on the five-circled epic, thanks to his unforgettable 200 metres.

This afternoon, he recalled that moment of immortal glory by honouring, together with his wife Silvia, the invite issued by Malagò, on behalf of Italian sport.  "A special emotion, an extraordinary memory", emphasised the Olympic champion, after having lingered upon the plate that frames his name in legend.

Rome 2024: “Proud to be here, we have a major project and a dream for our children”

Following the International Olympic Committee's announcement today of the five candidate cities for the 2024 Olympic Games, as spokesman for Rome 2024 said:

"We are extremely proud and honoured to be part of a process which includes four of the world's greatest cities - Paris, Los Angeles, Hamburg and Budapest. We sincerely thank the IOC for this fantastic opportunity. 

"But now the real challenge begins. The next two years will be tough but we are ready to go all the way with great enthusiasm. The experience of hosting the 1960 Olympics left a special mark on Rome and Italy and we are focused on reviving the spirt of those historic Games. 

"A Rome Olympics in 2024 will not only deliver a great festival of sport but will also place athletes and young people at the heart of all its planning.

"We recognise the urgent need to give Romans a better city and a greater  quality of life and the Olympic project can help us create a modern city, which will ultimately become more accessible and more sustainable with full transparency in all decision making.

"Rome and Italy have important cards to play, including a heritage of unmatched beauty and culture. We are confident that with the help and support of all the key institutions we can deliver this beautiful dream for our children."

Five world-class cities in strong competition for Olympic Games 2024

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is delighted to announce a very strong field of candidates for the Olympic Games 2024. Five cities – Budapest (HUN), Hamburg (GER), Los Angeles (USA), Paris (FRA), and Rome (ITA)* – will compete to host the Olympic Games 2024 after submitting their applications to the IOC by last night’s midnight deadline.

In line with Olympic Agenda 2020, the Host City Contract 2024 was published today. The IOC will contribute USD 1.7 billion in cash and services to the organising committee for the Olympic Games 2024.

 “We are welcoming five outstanding and highly qualified Candidate Cities,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “Olympic Agenda 2020 has shaped the Candidature Process more as an invitation and the cities have responded by engaging with the IOC through dialogue and cooperation. In the new invitation process the IOC learnt that all the candidates are embracing Olympic Agenda 2020 from their respective vision for the future of their city. Sustainability and legacy are the cornerstones of each candidature.”

UEFA steps up doping fight for new season

UEFA will kick off the 2015/16 season with the strongest anti-doping programme ever seen in European football. This includes the introduction of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) steroidal biological passport to improve the identification of steroid use; a strengthening of rules related to team and player whereabouts; long-term sample storage to permit the retrospective identification of prohibited substances; and a continuation of its comprehensive blood and urine in- and out-of-competition testing programme.

This season will also see a more coordinated and intelligence-led programme than ever before, with UEFA establishing cooperation agreements with the National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) of teams competing in the UEFA Champions League. So far, agreements have been signed with the NADOs of Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium (Flemish), United Kingdom, Sweden, France and Italy, with more to follow as the programme expands across Europe. This cooperation will allow for more harmonised test distribution planning, will reduce unnecessary duplication of testing, and will facilitate the sharing of information relating to player biological profiles and intelligence data to identify potential doping.

In advance of the UEFA EURO 2016 tournament, UEFA will conduct the largest pre-tournament testing programme ever implemented. All players with the potential to be selected for participating teams will be subjected to testing from 1 January 2016 via UEFA’s annual programme, and via a co-ordinated programme with NADOs including the Agence Française de Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD) in the host nation France. Teams will also be tested at squad meet-ups in advance of the tournament, and following their arrival in France. The tournament itself will see an advanced analytical blood and urine testing menu implemented at all matches, with the expanded 24-team format making it the largest programme to be conducted so far at a UEFA EURO tournament.

The chairman of the UEFA Medical Committee, Michel D'Hooghe, stated: “UEFA has always aimed to be at the forefront of efforts to keep football free from doping, and recent events in other sports have highlighted the importance of remaining ever vigilant and pushing for progress in all areas of our work. Although our doping statistics remain low amongst players in UEFA competitions, there can never be room for complacency, and UEFA remains committed to having a dynamic, multi-faceted and intelligence-led programme in which participating clubs and players can have the fullest confidence".

UEFA is also leading the way with its education programme. with a revised e-learning site currently in development; new player information leaflets for 2015/16; and the delivery of anti-doping education for the doctors of its 54 national anti-doping associations as part of the UEFA Football Doctor Education Programme workshop held in April 2015, and now to be rolled out to national associations via the UEFA 'cascading' process. UEFA conducts over 2,000 drug tests (combination of blood and urine) per season across all of its competitions.

Olympic candidature now official

The candidature of Rome to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024 was officialised today at the meeting that took place in Campidoglio, Rome, with the participation of Ignazio Marino, Mayor of Rome, Giovanni Malagò, President of CONI, Luca Montezemolo, President of the Committee for the promotion of the Rome 2024 Olympics, Luca Pancalli, President of the Paralympic Committee, Giovanni Caudo, the City Councillor responsible for Urban Planning and Claudia Bugno, General Coordinator of the Rome 2024 Olympic Committee.

During the meeting, everybody shared the need to identify the priorities and the features of the organisation of the sporting event, to fully embrace the amazing opportunity to develop and improve the city.

On this occasion, it was confirmed as feasible to place the Olympic village in the area of Tor Vergata, where new sport facilities will be built and the existing ones will be completed. An operation that will require the creation of an underground connection between the area and the rest of the city. The Olympics must be the opportunity to bring forth a new vision of the city, rooted in history and in the regeneration of what is in existence, with urban transformation projects starting from the development of a Tiber river park just north of Rome, which will become the gateway for “Olympic Rome”, for the enjoyment of the whole city.

Rome is officially a candidate for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games

Rome is officially a candidate for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The letter that formalizes the commitment to organize the greatest sports festival in the world was sent today to the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, that on 16^th of September will reveal  the names of all the cities that have come forward.

This morning in the Rome City Council, Rome 2024 President Luca di Montezemolo, CONI President Giovanni Malagò and the Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino signed the letter that formalizes the challenge of the Italian candidature and enhances its strengths. The challenging path of the Capital begins today. The objective is to build and share a project that will provide athletes and the world "the opportunity to experience the excitement and the Olympic spirit" in a stage of unparalleled beauty. No other city in the world can offer a similar heritage of art, history and culture that embraces such a wide span of time, and that allows to "perform the Olympics in the most spectacular and symbolic venues of the Eternal City".

Beauty, culture, and above all, with the commitment of Italy, innovation and sustainability, are consistent the main guidelines dictated by the 2020 IOC Agenda  that envisage a strong focus on legacy:  the future use for the city of the structures used for the Olympics.  Indications that the Rome 2024 Committee embraces with great conviction next to the equally crucial suggestion of sobriety. Rome, as the letter explains, has many sports facilities, partially in parks and major green areas, which will be used for the 2024 Olympics with minor upgrades and, if necessary, by using temporary structures.

Finally, the letter made reference to the Olympic values, that,  in a multicultural city like the Capital, "where diversity becomes the backbone of equality", can really build a bridge to peace and friendship of all nations.

SPORT@EXPO2015: starry night in Piazza Santa Croce, 3-0 for female Italvolley against Azerbaijan

History, culture and sport. Three aspects of Italian excellence to export to world. As timeless postcards, with eternal charm and a tradition that has become an example for others.  An exceptional theatre, Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, the starry sky of a late summer night, shining over the most evocative scene: "we play under the stars", says the motto of the event, with the sky as the roof of a special and unique frame.

Indeed, during this evening in Florence, female volleyball wrote a beautiful page of sport for the second of the three events organised by CONI and the Prime Minister's Office, in the context of initiatives to support Expo 2015, through a project named "SPORT @ EXPO2015 - Nutrition and sport: teamwork!". The friendly match between Italy and Azerbaijan, dominated by the Italian national team, with an assertive 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-17), was not only a test in preparation for the European Championships (from 26 September in the Netherlands and Belgium) but an iconic event that needs to further publicised, to spread the most beautiful sport image, the winning smash on an exceptional backdrop: the Gothic Basilica, built between the XIII and XIV centuries and considered a real pantheon of Italian artists, amongst which feature Michelangelo and Galileo.  The cradle of Florentine Calcio Storico (historic football) transformed for a timeless day in a spectacular arena.

The team lead by Bonitta, cheered by a packed venue, full of people and passion, won the first set with ease (25-15), without ever giving the impression of being threatened by the opponent's attack. The beginning of the second set was apparently balanced, before the decisive change in gears that resulted in the Italian victory, by a considerable stretch (25-18). The third set reflects the course of the match: it closes with 25-17 in the embrace of Piazza Santa Croce. These are the members of the national team who were the protagonists of the evening: Raphaela Folie (Liu Jo Modena); Indre Sorokaite (Nordmeccanica Piacenza); Ofelia Malinov (Club Italia); Carolina Costagrande (Impel Wroclaw - Pol); Valentina Tirozzi (Pomì Casalmaggiore); Caterina Bosetti, Cristina Chirichella, Martina Guiggi, Stefania Sansonna and Noemi Signorile (Igor Novara); Monica De Gennaro (Imoco Conegliano); Lucia Bosetti (Fenerbahce Istanbul) and Nadia Centoni (Galatasaray Istanbul).

This is the list of the 12 players of the Azerbaijan team: Jeyran Aliyeva, Ayshan Abdulazimova, Polina Rahimova, Oksana Kiselyova, Aynur Karimova, Odina Bayramova, Katerina Zhidkova, Kseniya Poznyak, Oksana Kurt, Valeriya Mammadova, Krystsina Yagubova, Marharyta Azizova. Coach Faig Garayev. The project, called "SPORT @ EXPO2015 - Nutrition and sport: teamwork!" saw its first event last Thursday in Capri with the friendly male water polo match of Italy against Spain, facing the cliffs (Faraglioni), and will end in Taormina, in the historical Ancient Greek Theatre: Italy will face the Rest of the World in a fencing competition, a unique challenge in a setting reminiscent of distant times. The initiative's aim is to conceive and develop, exactly during the Expo period, an integrated project, educational in nature, to raise awareness and promote the theme of "sport and nutrition", connecting the value of physical activity and sport practice with some of the main themes of Expo 2015. In particular, this will be beneficial in advance of the next Olympic Games, which will take place in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

To make all this happen, high profile sporting events were conceived in some of the most beautiful places of the peninsula, with the participation of athletes of world calibre, who will draw the attention of the general public on the featured project and themes.

Malagò and Chimenti in London: the Italian candidature for the Ryder Cup 2022 now formalised

The completion of the Italian candidature for the 2022 Ryder Cup was made official at the Italian Embassy in London, with the signing of agreements between the Italian Golf federation and Ryder Cup Europe.  Italy competes against Austria, Germany and Spain. The location of the games selected by the Italian Golf Federation (FIG) is the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, a Roman Club.

Guests of the Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano and of Mrs Karen Terracciano were the Bid Management Team (lead by Richard Hills), Giovanni Malagò, President of CONI; Franco Chimenti, President of Coni Servizi and of the Italian Golf Federation; Stefano Manca, Secretary General; Marco Durante, Federal Councillor and Bid Coordinator; Lavinia Biagiotti, representing the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, and Chiara Geronzi, responsible for communicating the candidature and event coordinator. For the Municipality of Rome, Giovanna Marinelli, Councillor for Culture and Sport, and Mario Defacqz, Head of the Secretarial Office, were in attendance. At the meeting, also many high profile exponents of Italian businesses in London took part.

Franco Chimenti, President of the Italian Golf Federation, expressed great satisfaction: "We are proud to have received the compliments of the Ryder Cup Europe Committee, which described the Italian candidature as extremely valid. We believe we presented a project that exalts Italy's potential, which can act as a driving force for tourism and the economy in Italy. Through this candidature, FIG aims to give a further impulse to the development of golf in Italy".

The President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò (in the main photo with Alessandro Castellano and Craig Reedie, President of WADA, and member of the IOC, and in the indoor photo with Gaetano Thorel, Vice President of Marketing for Ford Europe) also complimented FiG: "On behalf of CONI and personally, I express my full support to the candidature of Italy for the Ryder Cup in 2022. It is an ambitious project, which can count on the support of the Government. To host  such an important sporting event in Rome would represent an excellent showcase for the country and would also contribute to increase the prestige of Rome's candidature for the Olympic Games in 2024. Furthermore, golf will return amongst the Olympic disciplines in Rio 2016, confirming its importance in the sporting arena". The Italian candidature, which attracted the attention of the English press (in the afternoon, a delegation of journalists met with Giovanni Malagò, Franco Chimenti and Marco Durante), will be examined by the Bid Management Team and will be compared to that of other competing countries. The verdict will not be reached before the end of October.

Italia Stars inaugurate the stadium in Brazzaville Tommasi: “We are dreaming of the 2024 Olympic Games in Rome”

From Congo to Rome 2024. The “fever” for the 2024 Olympic challenge has risen even in the African Continent. In Brazzaville, capital of Congo, thirty-five thousand spectators celebrated the opening match of the “Italia Stars”, the representatives of the old glories of Italian football (captain, World Cup champion Cannavaro) against the same selection of Congo. The game, organized to inaugurate the new stadium, ended 3 to 3. It was an opportunity to add a piece to the Italian dream to have the 2024 Olympic Games in Rome.

Damiano Tommasi, Italian Players Association President explained, with these words, the presence of the Italian players in Congo: "Our presence with the Italia Stars was an important opportunity to talk about our country. Football has created a bond between Rome and Brazzaville, the city that will host the next African Games. So let's hope to host the 2024 Olympic Games in Rome."

The initiative organized to enhance the image of Made in Italy in the world, has been promoted by the FIGC in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Footballers Association (AIC), with the support of the Rome 2024 Committee, and is part of a broader framework of cooperation between the Government and the Football Association.

SPORT@EXPO2015: great performance of the Italian national water polo team (Settebello) against Spain in front of Capri's cliffs

The male water polo Italian national team, led by coach Sandro Campagna, faced Spain in the basin of Marina Piccola in Capri, winning 18-12. In front of the cliffs, the Italian team played this friendly match in the sea, thus participating in the events planned by the Prime Minister's Office and by CONI in occasion of Expo2015, on the theme "Nutrition and sport: teamwork!"

The Project includes another two events of utmost prestige: Wednesday 9 September, beginning at 8:00 pm, in the evocative backdrop of Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, the female volleyball match between the national teams of Italy and Azerbaijan will take place, while on Friday 18 September, at 9:30 pm, in Taormina, in the historic Ancient Greek Theatre, Italy will face the Rest of the World in a fencing competition, a unique challenge in a setting reminiscent of distant times. For the time being, the competition in Capri was particularly evocative. Spain was the first to score, with Barroso, a few minutes after the starting whistle.  In the counter-attack, however, Aicardi immediately equalised the score. The score was increased by Mora and Giorgietti, but remained nevertheless balanced. It was then Di Fulvio who brought Italy back in the lead. A penalty on both sides did not change the situation: Carrillo and Giorgietti score, bringing the overall score to 4-3 for Italy. Thereafter, two Spanish goals closed the first set of the game with a 4-5 advantage for the visiting team.

Spain increased the lead at the beginning of the second set, but Di Fulvio reduced the distance and Luongo, stronger in numbers, equalised the game once more (6-6), while Aicardi brought the Italian team back on the lead (7-6), all in the space of two minutes. Malarach scored his third goal, but it was Gallo who then maintained the distance (8-7), scoring a penalty that ended the second set with Italy leading by 9-7, even if Giorgietti in the last seconds could have followed suite already from the five-meter line (penalty), but the crossbar denied him the satisfaction of a goal. The third set opened with the goal by Valentino Gallo (10-7). In goal, Tempesti gave his place to Vassallo. On the other side, Aicardi got the score to 11-7. Tiredness became perceivable and some long distance throws were imprecise. However, Gallo did not make a mistake and defined the maximum Italian advantage (12-7). Spain unblocked herself after a penalty and then with setter Carrillo (12-9).  Alex Giorgietti this time did not miss the penalty (13-9). Then Aicardi's lob shot increased the advantage of the Italian team (14-9).  The Italian team then went wild with Renzuto and Baraldi's goals. The third set closed with a score of 16-9 for the Italian team.

Spain scored again at the opening of the game's last set. And then it repeated this twice, outnumbering the Italian team (16-12). The Italian team woke up again with Luongo (17-12). Outnumbering the Spanish, Giorgietti reached the Spanish goal, scoring the last goal of the match (18-12).

ITALY-SPAIN 18-12 (4-5, 5-2, 7-2, 2-3)

Italy: 1 Tempesti, 2 Di Fulvio, 3 Renzuto, 4 Marziali, 5 Giorgetti, 6 Fondelli, 7 Giacoppo, 8 Gallo, 9 Gitto, 10 Luongo, 11 Aicardi, 12 Baraldi, 13 Vassallo. Coach Campagna.

Spain: 1 Aguilar, 2 Bach, 3 Mora, 4 Alarcon, 5 Bustos, 6 Carrillo, 7 Barroso, 8 Flores, 9 Gutierrez, 10 De Lera, 11 Mallarach, 12 Lloret. Coach Hernandez.

Referees: Gomez from Naples and Calabrò from Macerata Campana.

Goals: first  set 1'42" Barroso, 2'01" Aicardi, 2'38" Mora, 3'08" Renzuto left-handed, 4'47" Di Fulvio, 5'12" Carrillo penalty, 5'33" Giorgetti penalty, 5'58" Alarcon, 6'34" Mallarach.

Second set 0'56" Mallarach left-handed, 2'14" Di Fulvio left-handed, 3'29" Luongo left-handed, 4'07 Aicardi, 5'06" Mallarach, 6'16" Gallo left-handed, 7'36" Gallo penalty

Third set 1'26" Gallo, 2'22 Aicardi, 3'52 Gallo, 4'09" Mallarach, 4'59 Lloret, 5'22 Giorgetti penalty, 6'01" Aicardi, 6'49" Renzuto, 7'57" Baraldi.

Fourth set 0'46" Lloret, 1'30" Mallarach left-handed, 2'58" Lloret, 3'33" Luongo, 7'10 Giorgetti.

Notes: in the second set Giorgietti misses a penalty