ROME (ITALPRESS) – “A fantastic four-year period is coming to a close for sailing because of what it has been able to express in so many events and manifestations. We managed to bring sailing into the homes of Italians as we saw with the Americàs Cup and with Olympic medals. All with so much outreach and so much grassroots activity. The grade is absolutely high, almost perfect.” This was said by the president of the Italian Sailing Federation, Francesco Ettorre, during an interview at the Rome office of Italpress. “We have achieved all the objectives and one objective that was not really sporting was to popularize and make people understand that the sport of sailing is complex and certainly not simple but that it can reach a lot of kids,” continued the FIV number one. “Thanks to our clubs we manage to be all over Italy. A very positive rating that certainly bodes well for the future.” Sailing is becoming more and more part of the jargon of Italians: “The Americàs Cup is definitely a mass event, the oldest event in history,” Ettorre explained, “Every participation of the Italian team has always made people talk about it, but I think this year with the young team and also with the women’s team it has increased. Clearly the Olympics for a federation are the flagship of the whole activity, now we have great champions, we have sports personalities that can give so much to Italian sailing but I would say to Italian sport.” Paris Olympics that brought as many as two medals to Italian sailing: the gold of Caterina Banti and Ruggero Tita in Nacra 17 and the historic success of Marta Maggetti in women’s windsurfing. But it’s already time to look ahead in the direction of Los Angeles 2028: “In Marseille it was definitely a positive experience, but we want to improve, we have raised the bar of projects and objectives, we are recomposing the technical staff that will be enriched with other figures precisely to give more strength to these guys. The goal is to confirm, improving is very difficult but the path from here to Los Angeles will be made with the will to improve, this is obvious. We all know how difficult it is to win an Olympic medal, how difficult it is to confirm and in this case we have won three medals in the last two editions of the Olympic Games. Doing better is important, but it is definitely very complex.” Just in the past few days, Ettorre was re-elected president of the Fiv: “This third term has objectives that are not only those of a sporting nature, but also to consolidate the federation because we have so many challenges ahead, not only competitive, but of growth. A path to enter the world of schools and all those areas that make a sport great: these are the goals. We all have a great desire to do and to consolidate a federation that is certainly at the top,” he concluded.- photo Italpress – (ITALPRESS)
