Vezzali: “Super year for sport in the country of couch potatoes”

The Italy of sport has experienced “an exciting period, it has been an extraordinary year”. And this “in a country of couch potatoes: all ready to cheer on the European Championships, but then they don’t get up. Italy is fifth last in Europe for the number of sports practitioners”. It is one of the steps taken by the Undersecretary for Sport, Valentina Vezzali, at the Rimini Meeting. Among other things, Vezzali pointed the finger at the dramatic shortage of sports facilities, taking for example “the historic gold medal in the pursuit on the track. This in a country that has only one indoor velodrome and which is now in maintenance, because it rains in it. You cannot continue to live on miracles “, he stresses. “In this scenario – continued Vezzali – the Italian successes are extraordinary”, and this “also thanks to the 2018 reform. the Olympics, and 5 gold medals; but there are also other disciplines that are experiencing periods of luxuriant results “. “Sport, especially after what it suffered in the pandemic, needs concrete and structural interventions: it represents 2% of the GDP. You can no longer waste time, even for the sedentary lifestyle among the youngest: in 2019 one in 5 was sedentary , after the pandemic the data has sadly aggregated “. An opportunity to be seized is the PNRR, which has a billion room for sport. I also want a turning point towards a greater incisiveness of Sport and Health, which in these two years has been seen as a simple provider of funds but whose task is that to make it possible to improve the sporting practice of the country, I repeat in fifth last place in Europe. Another challenge – he says again – is to bring sport to the center of school life “, recalling the introduction of the physical activity teacher since primary school .