All good things come in threes: after having lost them in 2004 to the advantage of Athens and after having given up - by decision of the Monti government - the candidacy for the 2020 edition (subsequently assigned to Tokyo), now Rome risks saying goodbye also to the race for Olympics of 2024. The event in the capital has been awaited since 1960, the first in which the Paralympics were also held and remembered, among other things, for the gold medal of the just late Cassius Clay (he competed under that name before becoming Ali).
The risk of having to wait quite a while longer for a second edition of the Summer Games hosted in Italy is great, after the result of the first round of the municipal elections, which see the candidate of the 5 Star Movement have a clear advantage Virginia Rages. If Raggi were to become mayor in 15 days (he will go to the ballot with Roberto Giachetti of the Pd) the Olympic candidacy could wane: the same candidate reiterated a few days ago, after a momentary second thought in the heart of the electoral campaign: "With the debt the capital thinking about hosting the 2024 Olympics is criminal”.
In Palazzo H, the headquarters of Coni, and in the former bunker hall of the Foro Italico, headquarters of the promoting committee of Rome 2024, they are worried and are divided between pessimists and optimists (among them Giovanni Malagò). La Raggi, and the 5-star movement behind it, have always been against the candidacy, they also used strong words and they look to today (potholes, roads, waste, etc.) more than to tomorrow. “It would be madness to give up right now,” say the leaders of Italian sport.
The mayor's role is decisive: in fact, it is the city that is a candidate and CONI endorses the choice. But for the supporters of the Games in Rome there is still a cartridge: it seems that Raggi, while reiterating her no, could support the referendum wanted by the Radicals. And the outcome would by no means be taken for granted, just as the victory of the grillina candidate is not taken for granted. Open support for Rome's candidacy for the Olympics, however, Raggi's opponent in the ballot also expressed today, Roberto Giachetti.
