Palazzo del Quirinale, 05/12/2025
Madam Chair of the International Olympic Committee, Presidents of Italy’s other constitutional bodies, welcome all to Rome.
The lighting of the Olympic flame, which marks the start of an inspiring journey through Italy’s Regions, is not just the start of a major sports event: as we know well, it also carries a profound symbolic value and evokes the principles and ideals that have retained their universal character throughout history.
The Olympic flame reminds us that women and men can aspire to ever higher goals, that they are free and capable of moving forward, and that being aware of our common destiny and shared progress calls for human fraternity, urges solidarity, and demands there to be no oppression and to reject any claim to superiority based on ethnic origin, religious belief, or social condition.
This message is renewed day after day by young people who practice sports, by the diverse world of amateurs, and by the true champions of every discipline.
The Olympics and Paralympics are global events, enabling sport to resonate with everyone in the world with even greater force.
The Olympics are both ancient and modern history.
They also belong to the present moment. Now more than ever, we feel the need and urgency of friendship and peace among peoples. Peace has been part of the Olympic DNA since the beginning of times: as we all know well, when competitions were held in ancient Greece, weapons were laid down.
Italy has requested that the Olympic truce be renewed.
We hope this becomes truly possible. Indeed, we hope for even more: that the two months separating us from the start of the Games bring détente and dialogue, halt aggression and atrocities, and put an end to the ambitions for power that sow fear, death, and devastation.
In any case, the sign of peace carried by the Italian Olympics and Paralympics will be clear and visible all over the world. It is part of our nature. Our culture. Our history.
The partnership between Milan and Cortina itself conveys a message of welcome and openness. The Games will also bring athletes and teams to Bormio, Livigno, Anterselva, Predazzo, Tèsero. In turn, the Verona Arena will host the Paralympics opening ceremony.
Milan and Cortina will spearhead a major Italian commitment. As always, we will offer hospitality, public participation, and friendship to anyone who joins us, thereby enriching each day of these global events.
Cortina returns as an Olympic city after seventy years. The world has moved quickly since then. That was the first Winter Olympics ever broadcast on television. There were black and white images, yet – and I remember this very well – they were truly charming, a gateway to the future.
For the first time in the history of sport, the Olympic oath was sworn by a woman, the skiing champion Giuliana Minuzzo. One of sport’s greatest treasures lies precisely in the progress it brings to society, which soon becomes a shared legacy.
Another unforgettable edition of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics was held in Italy twenty years ago – in Turin and the mountains of Piedmont. It was an extraordinary opportunity for sport, to meet people and to grow, both in terms of sport itself and in economic, technological, tourist, and cultural terms.
We believe this will be a moment of growth for everyone – for Italy, which welcomes delegations from so many parts of the world, and for all the athletes staying in beautiful places, striving for victory, earning the public’s admiration, and showing how the spirit of sports competition can guide us further along our path.
We received the baton from Beijing. We will pass it on to France, which will host the next Games in the French Alps.
In times of change – such as the moment we are currently experiencing – there is a need for hope. Hope for the future.
Sport carries this precious value. It holds it and passes it on. It shows how, with dedication, perseverance, and the courage to push past one’s limits, new goals can be reached. And tomorrow’s goal already holds a measure of hope that makes us better.
Major sports events increase the number of people who practice sport. Billions of people will follow the competitions on television and across the many platforms of our global communication landscape.
Let us now light the torch. And let us take these signs of hope and peace to our streets and cities.
Milan and Cortina, capitals of sport in the coming weeks, will surely honour the commitment they have taken on before all the continents.
And all of Italy will stand with them.
Link to the Quirinale official page https://www.quirinale.it/elementi/145379
