ICYMI: IPC President Interview; Cortina Venue on Track

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IPC President: "Most Important Paralympics in History"

(ATR) International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons believes that the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will be the most impactful in the movement’s four-decade history.

"Precisely because of the pandemic, these Paralympic Games are the most important in the history of the movement because the pandemic has affected, disproportionally, persons with disability around the globe," Parsons tellsAround the Rings.

"In this sense, it has highlighted inequalities in the ways societies serve people and treat people with disability in terms of access to services, infrastructures, and in the design of policies that should be inclusive, but in a moment of stress they end up not being as inclusive as planned.

"The Paralympic Games is the only global event where persons with disability take center stage – and we’re not talking just only about sport," he said. "It is their platform that they have to be heard at the moment."

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Cortina Bobsleigh Project on Track Amid Twists and Turns

(ATR) Eugenio Monti is widely considered the greatest bobsleigh pilot ever and a sportsman who epitomized the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.

The Italian won six Olympic medals between 1956 and 1968, but is perhaps equally remembered for his magnanimous gestures at the 1964 Innsbruck Games.

Among the favorites in two events, Monti lent the British duo of Anthony Nash and Robin Dixon a bolt off his own sled prior to the final run of the two-man competition. He then assisted Canada by offering his mechanic to make a critical sled repair during the four-man event. Monti’s competitors proceeded to race to gold medals as he and his teammates settled for a pair of bronze medals.

Monti was honored and awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for his sportsmanship.

Nearly six decades after his unforgettable acts and with preparations for Milano-Cortina 2026 ramping up, Italian sport leaders and politicians intend to honor Monti by having the fabled Cortina d’Ampezzo bobsleigh track rebuilt. The 1956 Olympic venue was renamed after the Italian legend following his death in 2003, but closed in 2008 due to rising maintenance costs.

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Tokyo 2020 Baseball Qualifier Moves to Mexico

(ATR) The Final Baseball Qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games moves from Chinese Taipei to Mexico due to the unexpected epidemiological situation in the Asian nation.

The president of the WBSC, the Italian Riccardo Fraccari, confirmed the announcement to Around the Rings on Thursdayand revealed that for five days he had been in the process of finding a new headquarters while restrictions were tightened in Taiwan due to the increase in COVID cases.

The most recent of the regulations prohibited the entry to the island of travelers without resident visas until June 18, which hampered the development of the event that was to be held at the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium from June 16.

The decision to change the venue was confirmed after a virtual emergency meeting with the WBSC Executive Committee and after consultations with the Mexican authorities led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a lover of baseball.

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