First Olympic mission for Rome 2024. The Italian delegation, composed of the President of the Organizing Committee, Luca di Montezemolo, the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò, the Secretary General, Roberto Fabbricini, the Deputy Secretary-General Carlo Mornati, and the Head of Communications, Danilo di Tommaso, has participated in two important meetings with the IOC, formally opening the process leading - in September 2017 – to the allocation of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Rome has been the first candidate city to be received in Lausanne. In the morning, the delegation attended a technical meeting at the headquarters of the IOC, during which officials of the International Olympic Committee presented to the team the new criteria for the assignment of the Games.

In the late afternoon, at Geneva airport, the Italian delegation met the President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, who could not be present in Lausanne for personal reasons, to officially submit the candidacy of Rome. "It has been a very interesting meeting," said the chief executive of the IOC after a meeting that lasted about 50 minutes. "We want to help cities interested in creating strong candidacies, taking into account the specificities of each one of them," Bach added. The President obviously did not want to make comparisons with Boston, the only other known candidate city now. "The strength of an application will depend on how every city will use the passion for sport and the implication to leave a positive legacy," he added.

"We have had some very interesting food for thought," said Malagò. According to Montezemolo, the candidacy of Rome for 2024 will have to provide a good mix of tradition ("the memories of the magnificent games in 1960") and modernity ("the strongest Italian technology"): "The strengths of the candidacy of Rome must be unity and innovation," he added; a combination made perfect with the addition of "great communication skills. We have to think of reusable works, in sports and in every other field. The model of London 2012 really is enlightening". An opinion also shared by the President of the IOC, who said, "whoever will present the most sustainable plan for the Games will certainly make a difference". Montezemolo (pictured along with the IOC President Bach and Malagò) then added, "Now we have to support the hope. Italy is a country that looks up to the world, and the Olympic Games are a tremendous opportunity to display all of its assets. The candidacy of Rome is a battle in which the true spirit of national pride will surely come out". The next step for the Italian candidacy will be to provide – by February 27 – the planned dates for the 2024 Games: 17 days to choose, from July 15 to August 31.