Translated by Silvia Toro
The
first week of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics has come to an
end. These are the first
“widespread” Olympics
in history and the fourth Olympic event hosted in Italy, after Turin
in 2006, Rome in 1960, and Cortina in 1950.
The
sporting event is proving to be a huge
success,
both in terms of sporting achievements and television ratings: Never
before in the Winter Olympics has Italy won so many medals as it has
in these six days, 18 in total on the eighth day of the games,
placing it second behind Norway, which has won the same number but
with two more gold medals; more
than one million tickets have been sold for the competitions,
with an average occupancy rate of 85% at the competition venues.
According to Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026
Foundation, the figures speak for themselves about the success of
these Olympics. In terms of television ratings, Rai exceeded two and
a half million viewers for most of the competitions, according to
data released by Auditel for this first week.
However,
on the first day of Rai's coverage of the Olympics, during the
opening ceremony, the broadcast was anything but a success due to the
poor commentary by Rai Sport director Giampaolo Petracca, who
received a lot of criticism from the Rai journalists' union,
opposition parties, and the Rai Sport editorial staff: From the start
of the ceremony, when he welcomed viewers ‘from the Olympic
Stadium’ (in Rome) instead of the San Siro stadium, he made gross
errors, such as introducing actress Matilda De Angelis as Mariah
Carey and mistaking the president of the International Olympic
Committee, Kirsty Coventry, for the daughter of President Mattarella.
He then used several problematic clichés, for example
associating African athletes with voodoo rituals, proving himself
inadequate for the role.
The
ceremony was originally supposed to be led by deputy director Auto
Burbarelli, but he was excluded shortly before February 6 for having
anticipated the role of the President of the Republic at a press
conference: Petracca insisted on taking over, despite some executives
being opposed. USIGRai, the Rai journalists' union, called a
strike for Friday, February 13, and announced the withdrawal
of signatures from RaiSport journalists, followed by all Rai
editorial offices, services, links, and commentary from February 9
until the end of the Olympics. This
is Friday's statement:
"Rai journalists are today
withdrawing their signatures from their reports in solidarity with
their colleagues at Raisport who are protesting against the
director's commentary during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, a
task he assigned himself. Despite the serious damage to the image of
Raisport and Rai, nothing has happened. We will continue to defend
the authority of Rai's information to guarantee you, the citizens, a
good quality public service."
The
strike was supported by the EFJ,
the European Federation of Journalists, which expressed its
solidarity with the complaint about the “disastrous image”
presented by Petracca in his commentary. The Rai union argues that
the image and dignity of all Rai workers has been damaged, without
anyone taking responsibility. There has only been talk of possibly
excluding the director from the closing ceremony.
Another aspect
of this Olympic week was the protest march against the
sporting event, organized by the Comitato Insostenibili Olimpiadi
(Unsustainable Olympics Committee), a group that brings together
associations opposed to the impact of the Olympics on housing,
employment, and the environment in Milan: On February 7, several
thousand people marched (over
3,000 according to SkyTg24, more than 10,000
according to the organizers) to Corvetto, a neighborhood symbolically
located between the Olympic Village and the Santa Giulia Arena. There
were some clashes, with police charges and the use of water cannons,
while fireworks and firecrackers were set off by some protesters, six
of whom were detained for identification.
The
march was led by a banner reading “Let's take back our cities,
let's free our mountains,” followed by a symbolic
“forest” of cardboard larch trees,
created by the Proletarian Hikers Association to represent the 500
larch trees in Cortina that were cut down to build the new bobsleigh
track. Many groups took part in the march, including
environmentalists and mountain communities, housing committees,
students, grassroots unions, and Milanese social centers.
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