Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi passed the Olympic flame to Athens marathon gold medalist Stefano Baldini yesterday, beginning the torch relay for the Turin Winter Games.
After the ceremony at the presidential Quirinal Palace, Baldini carried the torch straight to the Trevi Fountain for the first handover.
"It was very emotional. It's moments like these that make you want to continue," Baldini said.
PHOTO: AP
Baldini recalled that the flame represents peace as he addressed protests against a high-speed rail link in the Olympic zone.
"I hope there is some sort of truce for the Olympics. We organized these games and our reputations as Italians are on the line, the Olympics are watched all over the world," Baldini said.
Stefano Donati, a recreational marathon runner, was the second torchbearer.
Other landmarks, including the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon, were also to be covered before the torch arrived at the Vatican later yesterday for a blessing by Pope Benedict XVI. The relay will end at the opening ceremony in Turin on Feb. 10.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and Turin organizing committee chief Valentino Castellani also attended the ceremony at the Quirinal Palace with Ciampi.
The flame is "a symbol of human civilization, the desire for progress and brotherhood," Ciampi said.
"After Greece, Rome is its second home. My presidency began seven years ago with a message of support for Turin's candidacy and it was a good choice," he said.
The beginning of the relay coincided with a church and national holiday in Italy, the Immaculate Conception. The first day was to end with the lighting of a cauldron at the Michelangelo-designed Campidoglio on Rome's Capitoline Hill, the exact spot where the relay began for the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics.
The torch will spend one more day in Rome today, when soccer players Francesco Totti of AS Roma and Paolo Di Canio of city rival Lazio take part.
The relay will then move on to touch every province in Italy -- with forays into France, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia. It will pass by the Leaning Tower of Pisa and up Venice's Grand Canal.
On Jan. 26, the torch will return to Cortina d'Ampezzo for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Games held there.
In all, the relay will cover 11,300km and involve 10,000 torchbearers, gondolas, a Ferrari sports car, and a cavalry regiment.
Turin-based design company Pininfarina SpA, renowned engineer of Fiats and Ferraris, designed the torch to look like the curved top of a ski.
Moroccan runner Hicham El Guerrouj, Italy soccer coach Marcello Lippi, New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, and all Italian gold medalists from the Athens and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics will take part in the relay.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but