Another record-breaking year, another season at the top. As 2023, the pre-Olympic year, draws to a close, Italian sport gathered at the traditional Collari d'Oro event to honour the champions who have established themselves across international stages. Italian sport’s well-deserved celebration was held in the Palazzo H’s Palestra Monumentale, inside the Foro Italico University, venue of the Collari d’Oro award ceremony. After the absence for health reasons of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister for Sport and Youths Andrea Abodi, CONI President Giovanni Malagò, the President of the Italian Paralympic Committee Luca Pancalli, CONI Secretary General Carlo Mornati and the President of the CONI Benemerenze Commission Alessandra Sensini took the stage to present the highest honour of Italian sport to the awardees.

In his opening remarks, Malagò summed up this year, which represents a fundamental step towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. “In life, numbers do not always give the full picture,” he pointed out in his speech, “but in sport they almost always do. We have just seen a three-year period of results never achieved before in history. CONI oversees 48 federations, there are 382 different disciplines. There are rules and regulations, dynamics for the practical implementation of the sport. Italy is the country that puts most effort into not only doing sport but doing so to a competitive standard. It is our strength but also our weakness, but it is a model that leaves no one behind. We have, therefore, won medals in disciplines you would never imagine. We can tell the same story in Paris, especially thanks to ‘new’ sports as the results. Italian sport is a leading strength of the country, and we are very proud of this.”

All this is leading up to one goal: the Games in France next year. “It is an honour and a privilege to be Italy’s Head of Delegation to Paris 2024,” said Mornati. “We’re in the final straight, there are seven months to go: it is the most important stage, the one in which the efforts of the last few years come to fruition. The athletes know they have our full support. See you in Paris.”

“We are used to working in silence, aware of the difficulties,” explained Pancalli, “but when you find the right people, the results follow. We are here to celebrate the excellence of Italian sport, the excellence of a system. Every athlete starts out from their family unit, from those who support them. The federations are doing an extraordinary job. Our system has proved once again that it is capable of excelling: there are countries that come to Italy to study us. This should be an added source of pride for all of us, because we have all earned it. What we have produced is positive not only for sport, but for the country.”

“Handing over the Collari is always an occasion of great pride and admiration,” stressed Olympian Sensini. “Sport creates unique strengths, unique people with skills that are not studied but forged on the field. Thanks to all the youngsters for flying our flag high in the world.”

President Malagò closed the ceremony: “It was a beautiful day that repays all the commitment, difficulties and bitter disappointments that have been overcome. We are pleased with the compliments received, some unexpected. Our work is recognised. Top sport is grassroots sport: you start from the bottom to get to the top”.

Photo Ferraro/Pagliaricci CONI