(ATR) Rome 2024 leaders dismiss suggestions that the election of anti-Olympic figure Virginia Raggi will wreck the bid.
Raggi of the 5 Star Movement was elected Sunday with 67.2 percent of the vote in the mayoral run-off against the Democratic Party’s candidate for mayor Roberto Giachetti. The 37-year-old replaces Ignazio Marino who quit last autumn in an expenses scandal.
In her mayoral campaign Raggi was outspoken in her objection against the city’s bid for the Olympics, insisting there were more important projects requiring investment and expressing concerns about the city's corruption troubles impacting the bid. She said last week that a referendum on the Olympic bid may come.
Rome 2024 denies Raggi’s election is a blow to the campaign to land the Olympics.
"There are no impacts, nothing changes from our side," a bid spokesperson told Around the Rings on the election result."We keep consistently working in our bid process, being in these weeks busy and focused on step two of the dossier, the build-up towards Rio, our local activities with schools and territory," she said.
Rome 2024’s top brass have no immediate plans to meet with Raggi in much-needed efforts to engage her support for the bid. What is certain is that the bid, strongly supported by prime minister Matteo Renzi, cannot survive without her support. "In these weeks, we’ve been constantly in touch with both candidates and their teams," the bid said.
"Again, nothing has changed from our side. Our focus is to set a very efficient, sustainable and excellent bid project in order to offer an extraordinary opportunity for Rome and Italy."
Luca di Montezemolo told ATR last week he was "very optimistic we can stay in the race" despite Renzi suggesting the Olympic bid may collapse if Raggi triumphed."I have the impression that the 2024 Olympics would be pulled", Renzi was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA.
In the aftermath of her victory, Raggi is yet to comment on the Olympic bid. The coming days and weeks ahead will be pivotal in Rome's Olympic campaign when the strength of her opposition to spending on the Olympics will become much clearer.
Reported by Mark Bisson
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
