(Courtesy Translation)
Madam President of the International Olympic Committee,
Mr President of CONI,
Members of the International Olympic Committee,
Ladies and gentlemen attending this important ceremony,
it is a pleasure for me to welcome you to Italy, to Milan, on the eve of the opening of the Winter Olympic Games.
The Games are a universal sporting event. Italy is happy to welcome the many athletes, trainers and coaches, and spectators who will be coming from across the world to view the competitions.
We are aware of the responsibility these Games entail and we have put great passion in dealing with the preparations.
We deem hospitality a distinctive feature of Italian identity and culture.
As President Coventry, whom I thank, kindly said: this is the Italian spirit.
And as President Buonfiglio pointed out, this is the fourth time Italy is hosting the Olympics.
We will do our very best to make the period encompassing the competition days enjoyable. And we trust we shall be able to offer, in a cordial and friendly way, opportunities to admire our mountains, to visit the cities and villages hosting the competitions, and to discover other historical and beautiful sites.
The Olympics are an opportunity for meeting and learning, as President Malagò reminded us. The very fact that athletes, coaches and officials from over ninety countries are coming together is something that transcends the sporting dimension.
This is a major global event that sends a message to our difficult times. Wars, the tearing apart of the serenity of international life, inequalities and suffering cast a dark shadow and harm the consciences of peoples.
Sport is welcoming, it generates joy, passion and hope. It means respecting the others. It poses a challenge to our limits: it is the freedom to progress.
Sport is meeting in peace: it bears witness to fraternity in a fair competition against others. It is the opposite of a world where barriers and lack of communication prevail. It stands against violence, which – regardless of the perpetrator – generates more violence, tramples on human dignity, oppresses peoples and lowers their quality of life.
We stubbornly and resolutely demand that the Olympic truce be respected everywhere. May the unarmed force of sport silence the guns.
Sport holds great power in the world of global communications.
The Games are an engaging tool for invoking peace and mutual understanding.
In the words of Martin Luther King: “We must be the peace we wish to see in the world”.
From Milan and Cortina, from Bormio, from Livigno, from Anterselva, from Val di Fiemme, from Verona – which shall host the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games – sport will convey this hope: a hope that unites the peoples of all continents.
The Olympic values of fair play, inclusion and fraternity are values that the Italian Republic has embraced ever since its foundation, some eighty years ago.
I wish to thank the International Olympic Committee for constantly and globally developing this experience consisting of encounter, passion, education and shared culture.
I would like to thank the athletes, whose dream is contagious and beneficial. They are an example for millions of youths around the world.
After following the Games, many girls and boys will take up sports, greatly contributing to the development of peoples.
May all of you, sports officials, athletes, coaches, spectators from every continent, feel moved and may you convey the passion that can already be felt in this enchanting theatre, where – as President Coventry pointed out – we can feel the precious threads that bind music and sport.
Italy wishes you a great, happy, unforgettable Olympics!
I hereby declare the 145th Session of the International Olympic Committee open!
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