Giovanni Malagò, the head of
Italian Olympic Committee CONI, told an ANSA forum on Tuesday
that the Olympic torch would probably start from Lampedusa if
the Italian capital lands the 2024 Games.
The southern Italian island is often the first landing
point for asylum seekers from North Africa and has become a
symbol of the refugee crisis after several migrant-boat
disasters in the southern Mediterranean.
"If Rome hosts the 2024 Games, we would like the torch
(relay) to start from Lampedusa," Malagò told an ANSA forum.
"It would be an important signal.
"The decision is not totally our competence. That island
has a special value that should be highlighted".
Rome, which is up against Budapest, Los Angeles and
Paris, has high hopes of landing the 2024 Olympics.
The capital hosted the 1960 Olympics and carried off a
largely successful edition of the World Swimming Championships
in 2009.
Many of the required sports facilities are up and running
and would only need upgrading, including the Stadio Olimpico,
home to Serie A clubs AS Roma and Lazio, which has a running
track for athletics.
So organizers are hopeful of staging the Games at a
relatively low cost.
Montezemolo, the former president of Ferrari who is now at
the helm of Alitalia, stressed that the bid committee was in
touch with environmental associations because it wanted to hold
zero-impact Games too, while giving a lift to Rome's much
criticised infrastructure.
"The Olympics is a great festival of sport and for us at
the Rome 2024 company, the most important clients are the
athletes, so we can guarantee them facilities and hospitality,"
Montezemolo told ANSA.
"But there's much besides. The Rome Olympics are the
Olympics of beauty, of culture".
For his part, Malagò said Italy's strong sporting heritage
was a major part of its appeal.
"Italy is fifth in the all-time Olympic medal standings,
we are still in front of France and China," he said.
Montezemolo said that he was not worried about the threat
of terrorism affecting the competition to land the 2024 Olympics
and working in Los Angeles' favour.
"I hope that this tragedy of terrorism finishes soon, but
the sensation is that we will have to learn to live with this
situation, with a world that's different from the past,"
Montezemolo said.
"Security is important but at the moment it does not worry
me and we have strong, continuous, deep relations with those who
take care of security in Italy. When it comes to security, it's
necessary to work hard and speak little".
Malagò set Italy's Olympic team a target of winning 25
medals at this summer's Games in Rio.
He said this was effectively the mark set at the 2012
London Games, when Italy won 28 medals, including eight golds,
as since then some events that the Azzurri are strong in have
been dropped.
"For Rio I say that over 25 medals in total would be an
improvement," Malagò said.
Montezemolo declined to comment on reports that he was
named in the so-called Panama Papers case of leaked documents
concerning offshore accounts and companies.
He also said that he was hopeful that former Ferrari F1
great Michael Schumacher can recover from the head injuries he
sustained while skiing in the French Alps over two years ago.
"I'm very hopeful for Michael's recovery," he said.
"Michael is still a life companion for me. We won a lot
together for 11 years.
"His strength is his great capacity to react. I'm
convinced that he was the strength to react inside him".
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