Paris 2024, Tamberi’s touching dedication to his wife at the Quirinale: “Without her I wouldn’t be who I am today”

The Head of State handed over the tricolor to the blue standard bearers, designated flag bearers of the Italy Team for the Olympics

by Maria Carmela Fiumanò and Sausan Khalil

ROME – At the Quirinale the Italian athletics team departing for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. At the ceremony with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella organized in the Gardens of Colle, a large representation of over 200 Italian athletes, accompanied by technicians and managers, led by the president of CONI, Giovanni Malagò and the president of the Italian Paralympic Committee, Luca Pancalli. The Head of State, who will be in Paris on 26 July for the official inauguration ceremony, handed over the Italian flag to the blue standard bearers, Gianmarco Tamberi and Arianna Errigo, officially designated flag-bearers of the Italia Team for the Paris 2024 Olympics, and to the athletes Luca Mazzone and Ambra Sabatini, as flag bearers for Italy at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

THE WORDS OF GIANMARCO TAMPERI FOR HIS WIFE

During the ceremony, Gianmarco Tamberi also spoke, and in front of those present, he took the opportunity to thank his wife Chiara Bontempi for always supporting him. “I would like to thank with all my heart my beloved wife, who by standing by my side for 15 years has allowed me to be what I am today: the standard bearer of the Italian national team. The women and men who we choose to have alongside us on the journey called life can make us better. And today, looking in the mirror, I say that without her I would never have been up to this role“.

THANKS FOR MATTARELLA

In his speech, Tamberi also thanked President Mattarella: “Thank you President for being at our side at the European Championships”, then added: “I dream of carrying the flag of the most united country in the world. Receiving the tricolor from you and an unimaginable honor. We are ambassadors of perseverance and will. I give you my word that we will do everything we can to surprise you and make you and all Italians proud, always fighting to the end we will be crushed by the fear of not making it.”