The Olympic parade for Renè De Silvestro. “Beautiful ceremony how many emotions”

The Cadorino was present in Beijing yesterday and is ready to enter the race. “I hope this adventure can give me some satisfactions”

BEIJING. The bird’s nest has reopened its doors to host the opening ceremony of the thirteenth edition of the Paralympic Winter Games. Seventeen days later, lights and colors revived the futuristic sports facility in Beijing which on February 20 greeted the Winter Olympics with the delivery of the five-circle flag in the hands of the mayors of Milan and Cortina, Giuseppe Sala and Gianpietro Ghedina respectively.

At yesterday’s ceremony, the large Italian delegation, made up of thirty-two athletes, one of the most numerous of the whole event (the smallest, on the contrary, are those of Andorra with three athletes and New Zealand with two). The colorful tricolor catwalk was opened by the flag bearer Giacomo Bertagnolli, behind whom the hockey players first appeared and immediately after the wheelchair athletes including Cadore René De Silvestro, one of the most anticipated on the eve after the recent exploit at the world championships in which he won the gold medal in the combined. For the blue bearer of the sitting category, the thrill of parading in front of the President of the Chinese Republic Xi ​​Jinping was great. A smile barely held back under the ordinance mask.

«It was a very exciting moment, the facility is beautiful, in line with the organization of the event. There were a lot of people in the stands. The atmosphere is typical of the party, the same that involved and animated all the delegations involved in the parade “, explained the athlete registered for the Druscié ski club in Cortina,” the controls were rigorous again this time. There is great attention around health protocols. We took off and immediately returned to the base, there is a little way to go between Beijing and the competition area. We are ready to inaugurate this adventure that I hope will give and give me a lot of satisfaction ».

Few words, after all, the time to enjoy the show of the inaugural ceremony, albeit as a protagonist, was short. From today it will be a hunt for the medal, not for René, who has jumped the free ascent and will enter the scene tonight at 3 Italian in the super G, a specialty that at the recent world championships in Lillehammer saw him win a bronze medal.

It will be his second participation in the Paralympic Games after the experience of Pyeongchang in 2018 in which the Italian delegation won two golds, two silvers and a bronze, finishing in twelfth place in the medal table.

Returning to the inaugural ceremony, the absence of the Russian and Belarusian delegations did not go unnoticed. The decision has made and still is a lot of discussion: the leaders of the international Paralympic committee have in fact decided to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the games on the eve of the opening ceremony. A turnaround in the last hour after the same, who in the meantime had already reached Beijing, were allowed to compete albeit under the “neutral” Paralympic flag, avoiding any nationalist banner.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian delegation was present and during the parade received the warm applause of the Chinese public present in the stands of the bird’s nest stadium, open to 60% of the total capacity for the occasion. Just René De Silvestro had told, once he arrived in Beijing, the presence inside the village of the delegation of Russian athletes, perfectly integrated with the rest of the delegations despite the winds of war coming from the heart of Europe.

WHEN RACE

Renè De Silvestro skipped last night’s downhill and will debut at 3am tonight. The athlete from San Vito will make his debut in the super G, in the sitting category. A specialty in which he was bronze at the recent World Cup. On the night between Monday and Tuesday, however, it will be the turn of the super combined that gave René gold in Lillehammer. The start at 3 with men and women.

In the night between Wednesday and Thursday the giant slalom and the last engagement with the special slalom on the night between Friday and Saturday, always from 3. All the Paralympic Games competitions will be broadcast unencrypted on RaiSport. The closing ceremony is scheduled for March 13, again at the bird’s nest in Beijing, once again in the presence of the mayors of Milan and Cortina.