ROME (ITALPRESS) – “We started four years ago preparing for the event, with a bid that beat formidable rivals such as Paris, Berlin and Sydney because when the canoe federation approaches an appointment it tries to do it in the best possible way.” There is no doubt: the highlight for Italian canoeing this 2025 is the World Championships at Milan’s Idroscalo, scheduled for Aug. 20-24.
THE VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH LUCIANO BUONFIGLIO
Eighty participating nations, two thousand athletes in the water, an estimated attendance is about seven thousand per day. Data that certainly do not frighten the president of the Italian Canoe and Kayak Federation, Luciano Buonfiglio, who is certain that the rainbow event will be a success, from every point of view.
“We have obtained the sharing of the institutions, Coni and Sport and Health because we are convinced that only with a well cohesive team in the territory can we make a good impression,” Buonfiglio explained in an interview in the Rome office of Italpress. “And organizing an event is not only a competitive moment, but an opportunity to give body to the image of our country, lend a hand to the territory and tourism and, of course, enhance the value of our athletes.
The first environmentally sustainable canoe World Championships will be staged at Idroscalo, and an event that will see able-bodied and Paralympic athletes compete in the same event. And, on the water, important results can be expected from the Italian canoeists: “We have just returned from the Olympics, where we won a silver medal with Tacchini and Casadei, and we have restarted by restructuring the technical direction with the much broader participation of the company technicians. We have put the sports clubs and their technicians at the center of all our activities in order to build a broader base and restart at the beginning of the four-year Olympic period with a younger team than the one that accomplished the feat at the Olympics, but at the same time one that really has the preparation to get to the result. We are working in synergy with CONI and the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science to put our athletes in the best conditions, our goal is six finals and three medals,” reveals the Campania executive.
In addition, recalls the Fick number one, “it will be an inclusive World Cup because we will support with our budget thirty athletes from countries in economic conditions that are inadequate to participate and, in the intervals of the events, the activities of the Pink Lady association, the women with breast surgery. And we will produce the synthesis of some of our sustainability projects, first of all with the Sant’Anna school in Pisa, which we developed with the international federation. In short, we do a lot of things because we want to be protagonists, not only in the competitions.”
Buonfiglio was the first to run for the presidency of CONI while many would like to see a continuation of current number one Giovanni Malagò at least until the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, thus exceeding the physiological limit of three terms. “I am a person who when he says something he keeps it. I have always been the first supporter of Giovanni Malagò, for his leadership and for what he has done in these years, not only for the Olympic medals. Of course, time is running fast right now, and because I believe that sport needs certainty, I put myself at the sport’s disposal. I like to keep my word firm: as long as there is a chance for President Malagò I will be firm, when there is no more we will be ready. I say we will be because I am not the only one who thinks so.”
Canoeists may be born, but they certainly become: this is why Fick is working hard to bring young people even closer to this discipline: “The future is always built first, we have developed over 320 clubs and more than 20,000 registered members in the territory, we are trying with targeted projects to enter schools in a solid way. We are developing all activities, not only speed and slalom, but also sea canoe, downhill, tourism. In short, canoeing for everyone, so that it is a tool for fun: today we count about 180 thousand fans and we must be more and more attractive because our coasts, lakes and rivers are manned by our societies,” Buonfiglio concludes, “and we count on being more and more present for Italian sport and for the image of our wonderful country.
– Italpress Photo –
(ITALPRESS).
