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OLYMPICS

Polls show Italians much more enthusiastic about 2026 Winter Games bid than Swedes

Support for Italy's bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo has grown with 83 percent of Italians now backing the project, according to poll carried out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Published: 6 April 2019 16:21 CEST
Polls show Italians much more enthusiastic about 2026 Winter Games bid than Swedes
President of the Italian National Olympic Committee Giovanni Malago speaks during a visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2026 Winter Olympics games on Saturday. Photo: Miguel MEDINA / AFP
By comparison, similar polls carried out in Sweden, where Stockholm is the only city in competition with Italy, put the figure at 53 percent.
 
IOC evaluation commission chairman Octavian Morariu revealed the Italian poll figures on Saturday after an inspection of proposed sites in the country's northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
 
Morariu described the joint bid by Italy's financial capital and Dolomites ski resort Cortina D'Ampezzo as a “very competitive proposition”.
 
“After our five days here, we can say that the overwhelming popular support demonstrated by the latest IOC poll is not a surprise,” Morariu told a press conference.
 
In Milan, 87 percent are in favour of the Olympics, while in the region of Lombardy, of which Milan is the capital, it was 81 percent and Cortina's Veneto region, 80 percent.
  
“Wherever we went we felt welcome,” continued Morariu of the visit which began in Venice.
 
Under the bid, figure skating, hockey and short-track speedskating would be held in Milan, with sliding sports and curling in Cortina; and speedskating, biathlon and Nordic sports would take place at Trentino-Alto Adige. The alpine skiing events would be in Bormio for the men and Cortina for women while the opening ceremony would be at the San Siro football stadium, with the closing ceremony at Verona's Arena, a large Roman amphitheatre.
 
“We found a great candidature team, that put a lot of passion and enthusiasm into the work,” said Morariu. “This is really very, very strong.”
 
'Financial boost' –
 
Despite darkening clouds gathering over Italy's economy, the Italian government on Friday officially provided the financial guarantees for the bid amounting to €415 million ($465 million).
 
“There's strong support from the government, local communities, athletes and the financial community,” said Morariu.  “The letter we received yesterday from the government proved it.” 
 
Former Romanian rugby international Morariu said the IOC would invest a further $920 million into the project.
 
“The Olympic Games are a catalyst for social and environmental change and also a true business opportunity,” he said.
 
Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said local people overwhelmingly backed the project.
 
“We want to win!” said Sala. “The Olympic Games could provide a fundamental opportunity for our city.”
 
No formal backing in Sweden
 
Stockholm has yet to receive full backing from the Swedish government with the deadline for providing guarantees officially April 12.
 
“What matters is that we receive the guarantees in due time, have time to analyse them and have them approved by the committee by June 24,” said Morariu referring to the date when the winning bid will be chosen in Lausanne. “This is the date that matters.”
 
Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) president Giovanni Malago said they hoped that their “track record” would convince the IOC to choose them over Sweden.
 
“Italy has a long history of organising great sports events. We hope this tradition can continue in 2026,” added Malago.
 
Italy has hosted the Olympic three times, with the 1956 and 2006 Winter Games held in Cortina and Turin respectively, and Rome hosting the 1960 Summer Games.

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SPORT

The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation

The Paralympics is full of stories of disabled athletes overcoming the odds to achieve sporting greatness but few bear the trauma of Jean-Baptiste Alaize.

Published: 28 August 2020 10:06 CEST
The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation
Jean-Baptiste Alaize training in Antibes. All photos: AFP

The 29-year-old French sprinter and long-jumper, who features in Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix released on Wednesday, was just three years old when he lost his right leg.

Not by accident or illness but by the brutal hack of a machete.

A child caught up in the civil war in Burundi in October 1994, he watched as his mother was beheaded.

“For years, every time I closed my eyes, I had flashes. I saw my mother being executed in front of me,” he tells AFP after a training session in Antibes, running his finger across his throat.

The killers left the Tutsi boy for dead. Alaize carries a large scar on his back but he was also slashed across the neck, right arm and right leg by his Hutu neighbours.

He woke up in hospital several days later, alive but missing the lower part of his right leg which had had to be amputated.

“With my mother, we ran, we ran, but we didn't manage to run far,” he says. “We were executed 40 metres from the house.”

A decade later, after coming to France in 1998 and being adopted by a French family, he joined the athletics club in Drôme.

Fitted with a prosthetic limb, he discovered that running gave him his first night without a nightmare since the attack.

“From my first steps on the track, I had the impression that I had to run as long as possible, so as not to be caught,” says Alaize who now lives in Miami.

“I remember like it was yesterday my first night after this session, it was… wow! I had cleared my mind. I was free.

“My energy, my hatred, were focussed on the track. I understood that sport could be my therapy.”

He tried horseback riding and enjoyed it, reaching level six, out of seven, until he pulled the plug.

“It was my horse that let off steam and not me,” he laughs.

The psychologist did not work out either.

“She made me make circles and squares. After a few sessions I told her that I wanted to change my method.”

However he did click with his school physical education teacher, who directed him to athletics after he had anchored his team to a spectacular “comeback” win in a 4×100 metre relay.

His classmates had no idea he was an amputee. He had hidden it to avoid teasing and more racial abuse.

“I was called 'bamboula', dirty negro, the monkey. It was hard.”

Fortunately, the Alaize family, who adopted him after he had spent five years in a Bujumbura orphanage where his father had abandoned him, gave Jean-Baptiste a base and a home that he had not had for years.

“When I arrived here I didn't know it was possible,” he said.

“I had lost that side, to be loved. I still can't understand how racism can set in, when I see my parents who are white, and I am a black child… they loved me like a child.”

His parents, Robert and Daniele, had already adopted a Hutu child from Rwanda, renamed Julien.

John-Baptist was originally called Mugisha. It means “the lucky child” which is not quite how things worked out. His new family name, though, suits him better. Alaize is a pun in French for 'a l'aise' – at ease.

The French disabled sports federation spotted the prodigy, and he began collecting his first trophies, including four junior world titles at long jump, three of them with world records.

“It was starting to change my life and I was happy to represent France,” he says.

He went to the Paralympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016), where he finished fifth in the long jump, just five centimetres short of the bronze medal.

Now armed with his state-of-the-art prosthesis, which he nicknamed Bugatti, he was dreaming of taking a step up at Tokyo 2020 and going home to France with a medal but the postponement of the Games has decimated his sponsorships.

“I'm still looking to compete at Tokyo 2021 or 2022 and Paris 2024,” he says.

“If I don't succeed, I will have to turn the page which would be sad.”

He hopes that Rising Phoenix will raise his profile and maybe attract some sponsors.

The documentary's producer Ian Bonhote is in no doubt that Alaize's star is rising.

“He bursts through the screen. His story will resonate,” he says.

“The nine athletes in our documentary all have different backgrounds, but none survived what Jean-Baptiste suffered. His disability was imposed on him in such a savage and violent way.”

Rising Pheonix is available now to view on Netflix.

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