The debut in Italy of the Olympic
Channel is "meant to give greater weight to history, linked to
something special in a time when it is ever more difficult to
find values", Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) chief
Giovanni Malagò has said.
The channel of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will
be broadcasting the world premiere of 'Legends Live On: Manuela
Di Centa', the first of a series of documentaries on Italian
star athletes.
From Sarajevo 1984 ("an Olympics that was a great experience,
where I met many athletes") to Calgary 1988 ("I trained very
well but shortly before I caught the flu and my hopes weakened
considerably), Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano
1998 ("the Olympics in which I won a bronze with my teammates
was the one in which I planned my retirement. It was the last
competition of my sports career"), Manuela Di Centa said that
"if I had not believed since childhood that girls like me could
do what I did in cross country skiing, I would never have
succeeded".
Malagò added that "Manuela has always been at the top of the
class. She was the first woman who made it into five consecutive
Olympics and then had a very important role in both CONI and the
IOC. We are pleased to present this initiative here at CONI,
because we are the IOC's ambassador in this country."
Some 70 days prior to the start of the Winter Olympics in
PyeongChang, the Olympic Channel communications chief Federico
de Mojana said at its presentation that the channel "is the
flame that remains lit during the Olympic Games. We are trying
to tell about the Olympics, sports and athletes. Our aim is to
open the doors to many young people".
Mojana said that in addition to the web platform
(www.olympicchannel.com), after having started collaborating
with "NBC in the US and Bein Sports in North Africa, in Europe
collaboration has started with Eurosport."
The channel has live reports, news and video products.
"It is an international platform," he added, "we are
available across the entire world. On the subject of Europe,
some things will soon be available on the Eurosport website. We
bring Italian stories abroad and many stories from abroad to
Italy."
photo: Di Centa in action in 1996
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