Curtain on the Milan-Cortina Games: "Olympics with 30 cum laude"

The best summary comes from CONI president Luciano Buonfiglio: “An Olympics with 30 and praise. There are thirty medals and the praise is because everything worked.” A few hours after the closing ceremony at the Verona Arena it was the day of the final press conferences of theMilan Cortina Winter Olympic Games. First that of the number one of Coni, then that of the president and CEO of Fondazione Milano Cortina, Giovanni Malagò and Andrea Varnier respectively. Different budgets, different points of view but the same judgement.

“It was a continuous evolution of enthusiasm, we showed oursorganizational capacityour ability to dosports system” Buonfiglio said, praising himblue sportnow in theOverall Olympic top 4. “If we put together the results of Paris and the results of this Olympics in Milan Cortina, I can confirm that we are among the top four countries in the world – he underlined – these results do not arise by chance. I can say today with serenity that before the start of the Games, based on our projections, there was a high capacity to medal in almost all disciplines”.

But today it was also the turn of the budget of the organizer of the Games, theMilan Cortina Foundationwhich arrived in the press room at the conclusion of the 145th session ofCIOwho paid her onestanding ovationa gesture that is not at all obvious if you consider that, as explained by Giovanni Malagò, “according to those with more experience than me there has never been a standing ovation like this in the history of the sessions”. For Malagò, an edition of the Games ends which caps “complicated years”, but in the face of which “we did not hide behind alibis”. “The vast majority of Italians believed in this project, but those who have something against it often feel more strongly. I think it was oneformidable spot in our country” he then added by thanking “two subjects who were not sufficiently named”: the two Ministries involved (Interior and Defense) who “gave great support” and “Christophe Dubi (Olympic Games Executive Director, ed.), without whom these Games would not have had this success”.

Con 1.3 million tickets soldoverall and an average occupancy of 88% (“with a truesold out for ski mountaineeringdebut”) was a great success also according to the CEO of Milan Cortina Andrea Varnier. “They are the firstPopular gameswe have said it many times. It’s amodel of which we are proud pioneers. We have shown that it is a model that can work, and it has worked from an operational point of view” he explained. Words which were echoed by those of the president who reiterated thatsustainability e widespread modelthey will be the future of the Games. “We made a virtue of necessity, we had no alternatives, but we courageously threw ourselves into the widespread model – he explained during the press conference – I believe this is the future”.

The numbers of the organization and the success of the games

The numbers provided by the CEO then give an idea of ​​theorganizational machinewhich made it possible224 sports sessionsseen from February 6th to today. Among the curiosities told by Andrea Varnier are those related to food. In theOlympic Villages (i 3 principali di Milan, Cortina and Predazzoand the 3 smaller ones set up in the other locations) 5560 beds were occupied and an average of 365kg of pasta, 10 thousand eggs, 8 thousand coffees, 60kg of Grana Padano and 12 thousand slices of pizza were consumed every day. “They made a calculation: if we put all the trays used on top of each other we would make a tower 60km high, about 18 times the height of the Tofane” he explained. Theorganizational staffit counted 1,700 people from the organizing committee plus another 3,000 people from “temporary staff”, i.e. those employed on the competition grounds. A team made up of “70% ofunder40coming from62 nationalities“a remarkable record sign of wealth, experiences, mentality and ideas”, he explained. Italy obviously dominates with 70% but a good representation also came from France (12%) “obvious legacy of the recent Paris Games”. As regards ivolunteersthese are 18 thousand betweenOlympics and Paralympicsout of 130 thousand applications received. Passed thegender balanceof athletes with 51% of female volunteers and with 48% of the total under 35 years of age. “Herenationalitythere are 98 – concluded Varnier – we had more nationalities among the volunteers than among the national Olympic Committees participating in the games. An exceptional figure”. Impressive numbers which culminate in two very special “medals” for Italy: theOlympic Order in goldthe highest honor of theCIOawarded toPresident of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellaand to the prime minister,Giorgia Meloni.