Alex Zanardi’s boys managed to accomplish the great feat of carrying, from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Paris, the baton of a relay symbol of inclusion, resilience and hope, which lasted three weeks (10 September – 1 October) and which saw 70 Paralympic athletes (recruited by Zanardi with the Objective3 project) travel 1,800 kilometers in 22 stages, crossing Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, the Italian-French border, to then travel up France through the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Burgundy-Franche-Comté and Ilê-de-France riding handbikes, bicycles, Olympic wheelchairs, running and canoeing and pushing with legs, arms and Heart.
The baton arrived under the Eiffel Tower at midday, carried by the athletes Marta Antoniucci (para-cycling), Pierluigi Maggio (paratriathlon), Eleonora Mele (para-cycling), Leonardo Percoco (handbike) and Ivan Territo (paratriathlon), who started from the castle of Brie- Comte-Robert at 8.30 am.
The finish line in Paris embodies a strong symbolic value, as it represents not only the final goal of a great sporting undertaking, but the arrival point of the long Olympic embrace between two cities, Cortina d’Ampezzo and Paris, which in the next three years will host the summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Crossing France was an incredible experience – says Barbara Manni, the marketing and communications manager of Objective3 – we perceived and received warmth and affection from everyone: the public, institutions and local associations. In four years, after thousands of kilometers and hundreds of stages, Objective Tricolore has finally crossed national borders for the first time to spread the message of a sport without borders on French soil as well. We are exhausted by tiredness – continues Manni – but very happy for what we have collected from this experience and, at the same time, for what we have managed to give to all those who came to meet us and get to know us along the way. We have once again demonstrated, through our fantastic athletes, that physical and mental disabilities are not a limit, but a different life opportunity and above all that it is forbidden to give up in the face of difficulties.
Rewinding the tape of this splendid fourth edition, the most beautiful and significant images of this long journey pass by as quickly as instantaneously, such as the exciting departure from Cortina, the stops animated by thousands of students in Mantua, Lecco and Verrès, the sports promotion villages in Conegliano, Piacenza, Padua and Reggio Emilia, the meeting with the patients of the Maugeri Scientific Clinical Institute of Pavia, the events organized in Caselle d’Altivole (Tv), at the Piccolo San Bernardo Hospice during the border crossing , and finally in Milan by the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation. And then again, the welcome of Noventa Padovana (Alex Zanardi’s municipality of residence), the first canoe stage in Mantua along the Mincio river and the first running stage starting from San Donato Milanese and arriving in the shadow of one of the towers highest in Italy, Allianz Tower in Milan.
There were many champions and testimonials who joined the initiative, because they were inspired by the value it contained. From the godmother of the event Giusy Versace, Paralympic athlete and now Senator of the Republic, to the comedian actors Paolo Kessisoglu and Luca Bizzarri (aka Luca & Paolo who launched the relay through 4 funny comic sketches published on the Objective3 social channels, to Gianni Bugno, Hervé Barmasse (Enervit Ambassador), Kristian Ghedina, Francesco Moser, Federico Pellegrino (Enervit Ambassador), Paolo Bettini, Daniel Fontana (Enervit Ambassador), the Paralympic cyclists Andrea Tarlao, Fabio Radrizzani and the former multi-medalist Giancarlo Masini, while in France Also joining the athletes are the paracyclist Jean Claude Thievent, the paralympic swimmer Laura Mahieu and Ludivine Munos, former paralympic swimming champion and now Head of Paralympic Integration for Paris 2024.
The great Objective Tricolore relay also achieved another important goal: it stimulated curiosity in new people and this represents the most important and socially useful goal.
Objective Tricolore was possible thanks to the support of the Emilia-Romagna Sport Valley Region, which fully shares the values of social inclusion and hospitality of this project and of the many companies that have embraced the initiative.