The British media “game inside” reported on 2nd that the Milan-Cortina d‘Ampezzo Winter Olympics had recently concluded successfully, and the Italian Olympic Committee had already begun planning for the next Olympic trip. Cities such as Rome and Milan are actively preparing, and it is expected that they will compete on behalf of Italy for the hosting rights of the 2040 Summer Olympics.
According to the report, the chairman of the Italian Olympic Committee, Luciano Bumfiglio, recently made clear his support for a renewed application for the Summer Olympics. “I think our country deserves to hold the Summer Olympics again,” Bumfiglio said. “But we need to proceed gradually, and the application must be approved and jointly participated by the government.”
Italy is an experienced Olympic host, having hosted four Winter Olympics and approaching its second Winter Paralympics. However, Italy has not hosted the Summer Olympics for decades, not since the 1960 Rome Olympics. Rome had intended to compete for the 2024 Olympics, but ultimately gave up due to financial concerns from the then mayor. Now, Rome‘s mayor Roberto Gualtieri is positive, saying publicly during the Milan Winter Olympics that he believes Rome “has the qualifications to apply again.”
Ivo Feriani, a member of the International Olympic Committee from Italy, has a more innovative idea. He believes that the distributed stadium clustering model adopted by the Milan Winter Olympics was very successful and received high evaluation from the International Olympic Committee. This innovative model of “distributed hosting” could also be applied to the Summer Olympics. Feriani suggests, “We can be more creative, such as considering the possibility of joint hosting ‘Roma-Milan-Venice’.” He emphasizes that the Olympic candidacy work needs to start 10 to 12 years earlier, and that the competition in 2036 was already very intense, with countries such as India, Qatar and Germany expressing strong interest, so he believes that “the most suitable time window for Italy is 2040”. “We have shown the International Olympic Committee the reliability of Italy and demonstrated our ability to deliver a promising summer Olympics in the future,” Feriani said.