Nice gesture. Giovanni Malago (photo above), the president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), also a member of the IOC and president of the organizing committee for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, took advantage of an interview with the daily La Repubblica to apologize to former Italian gymnasts victims of abuse and psychological pressure in the national team. “ As president of the Olympic Committee and point of reference for Italian sport, I feel the duty to apologize to all athletes and ex-athletes who have suffered due to inappropriate behaviorhe said. Those who made mistakes, if any, will pay. But we have to try to understand if these are just individual errors, or if there was a system that pushed them to make a mistake. The question of weight is one of the crucial aspects of gymnastics, more than in other sports. A certain degree of rigor and harshness is inevitable. It's something else when we cross the yellow line and from rigor we move on to violence, humiliation, vexation" Three former members of the Italian team rhythmic gymnastics, Nina Corradini, Anna Basta and Giulia Galtarossa, told last week La Repubblica their suffering and humiliation when they were in the federal system, particularly on the issue of their weight. Following their testimonies, several other ex-gymnasts in turn broke the law of silence, prompting the new Italian Minister of Youth and Sports, Andrea Abodi, to summon Giovanni Malago and the president of the Gymnastics Federation, Gherardo Techchi. The national body promised that the “ subject would be examined carefully by the competent authorities..
