Alpine skiing paralympic games to take place in Tarvisio

(AGI) Tarvisio, Jan 22 - The paralympic alpine skiing championships began with the following pronouncement from the Governor of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Debora Serracchiani: "I declare the Tarvisio 2017 world paralympic alpine skiing championship open". The opening ceremony was held in Tarvisio's Piazza Unita, with the presence of multiple flags, athletes and sports aficionados. Governor Serracchiani expressed her pride for an event that confirms "the special vocation the community has for sports and our consolidated capability of organising events of great excitement. This is to be combined with Friuli Venezia Giulia's tourism industry, which offers sports, mountain sites and sea coastlines, natural amphitheatres and cutting edge installations." Ms. Serracchiani underlined the "profound message" to be drawn from paralympic championships. "Sports, even at the utmost levels of competition, is not discriminatory but inclusive, does not raise fences but builds bridges, promotes different abilities and suggests that any challenge is possible." The new outlook on sports and disabilities marks "a change which we perceive and that, lately, especially after the Rio Paralympics, has been growing rapidly. It is a splendid revolution, " added Ms Serracchiani. The governor of the region then highlighted the role played by schools: "Here in Friuli Venezia Giulia, students are directly participating with over 30 flags waving from different countries. In this competition, there is no longer a focus on the geometric perfection of an Olympian man, but on the example of true champions who can go down the steepest runs because they have walked up the most arduous hills." At the end of the ceremony, the students from the Collegio del Mondo Unito dell'Adriatico and the Oberdan high school in Trieste, sang the Ode to Joy, accompanied by the Brigata Julia band. They were followed by the delegations of over 30 nations competing in championships reserved to the athletes with sight impairments and lower-limb disabilities. On the stage installed at Piazza Unita, the mayor of Tarvisio, Renato Carlantoni, addressed the public, followed by: the president of the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP), Lunca Pancalli; the president of the organising committee, Paolo Tavian; the president of the Regional Council for the Disabled, Vincenzo Zoccaro; and Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee. The ceremony was attended by Franco Jacop, president of the Regional Council. (AGI).
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