The President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, after receiving the CONI Gold Collar, the highest honour of Italian sport, spent a wonderful day among athletes and sports managers at the CPO “Giulio Onesti of Rome”.
Great emotion at the time of the surprise visit to FITA gym, the nerve centre of the Olympic preparation of Taekwondo, where he greeted the Italian athletes, the Olympians Vito Dell’Aquila and Simone Alessio, Federal technical staff and met the Ukrainian national team and the Afghan refugee athlete welcomed by the Italian Taekwondo Federation over the past two years.
“All this is wonderful, I warmly renew my thanks” With these words, President Bach thanked the FITA and President Angelo Cito for the help offered to the Ukrainian athletes and the young Afghan hosted in Italy at the Centro di Preparazione Olimpica dell’Acqua Acetosa. “Thank you very much for what you have done for these athletes. It’s the translation and application in the field of the Olympic Spirit and our values, to stick together in the spirit of inclusion and non-discrimination: “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter!”
The FITA President, Angelo Cito, has thanked the President of the International Olympic Committee”We are really proud of this wonderful surprise, and we are even happier to receive him right here, in the house of the Olympic athletes of taekwondo: this is the beating heart of our sport where all the sacrifices and joys, defeats and victories converge, where everything is lived through the five-circle values. For us to welcome “in the family” these athletes in difficulty, before a due act was a natural gesture; for this, we can only refer to the fundamental values of the Olympic Spirit. The sense of the foundation THF Italy, (rib of the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation, strongly wanted by the President of the World Taekwondo Chungwon Choue) It is precisely this, give hope through sport to those in life who did not have the same opportunities, so I can only thank with all my heart President Bach and the President of the CONI, Giovanni Malago for the welcome surprise”
