Aere, Rossi, Navarria, Milan and Zanni among the 109 medals at the Quirinale
UDINE. A day of glory, well deserved, well deserved. To return the tricolor to the President of the Republic, to take compliments and a silver medal from Mattarella and, before the dinner at Palazzo Chigi by the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, as happened on July 12 to the European football champions, to take the joy of the people crossing the center on buses discovered in the warm early autumn of the capital.
A busy day for the 109 Olympic and Paralympic medalists in Japan. A day of glory for the Friulian medalists in Tokyo, five of them more moved than the other. Because the day started early at the Foro Italico at the Stadio dei Marmi next to the Coni headquarters with the group photo orchestrated by the band leader “Gimbo” Tamberi. Then the gold Jonathan Milan, and the bronzes Mara Navarria, Mirko Zanni, Katia Aere and Giada Rossi, between a selfie and the other with Paltrinieri, Jacobs, Gimbo or Ganna reached the Quirinale gardens.
Honor, example, pride, integration, inclusion were the pillars of the interventions of the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò and that of the Paralympic Committee, Luca Pancalli. Record-breaking expeditions, the undersecretary and undersecretary with responsibility for sport, Valentina Vezzali recalled, which now must, for example, “really serve to bring sport to schools, including primary ones”.
Then President Mattarella, very well informed about our athletes after receiving the flag signed by all the medalists from the flag bearers Jessica Rossi and Elia Viviani: «You made the Italians happy. – You have been a team, you have shown friendship and integration among yourselves, soliciting attention for sport and, above all, inviting you to practice it ».
Then the awards. Giada Rossi, the tennis player from Zoppola on her second visit to the Quirinale, after the bronze in Rio 2016, remembering Mattarella’s compliments at the time and her youthful passion for the specialty, gave him a ball used in Tokyo: “Here you understand to be at the center of the Italian sports movement, ”said Giada. Mirko Zanni, bronze in weightlifting from Cordenons, spoke of “a fantastic day and a unique emotion”.
Mara Navarria, the carlinese bronze in the team sword, very excited, recalled how “waving the tricolor and the flag of Friuli gave me great emotions with this icing on the Quirinale cake”. Katia Aere, the bronze medal in Paraciliclismo from Spilimberg is telegraphically effective: «A wonderful day, unforgettable and above all expectations».
And Jonathan Milan, gold at the age of twenty with the quartet? He was at the funfair: front row on the open bus, Quirinale, Palazzo Chigi: “It was a great emotion, it is something that repays our sacrifices and the work of us athletes and the boys who are backstage”. Well done guys, thank you for this summer of lions you gave us.