XX Torino Winter Olympics

16.02.2006 The first Italian athlete to win a gold medal at Torino 2006 Armin Zoeggeler, led a delegation to Villar Perosa, the Agnelli family's home village, to pay tribute to the 'Avvocato' the driving force behind Turin's successful candidature

The “Avvocato”, the former Chairman of the Fiat Group and the guiding force behind the carmaker for many decades, would have smiled in his own way at the first gold medal of the Olympic Winter Games for Italy, an event that he so much wanted to take place in his beloved Turin: it would have been just as fantastic a sight for him as seeing the third star shine on the Juventus player's shirts.

The Olympic Winter Games are an orphan of Gianni Agnelli, however they always remember him. So much so as that Italian sport on Tuesday paid tribute to the man who is not with it any more. Armin Zoeggeler, newly crowned as Italian luge champion, represented everyone in a lay procession, a rite that was celebrated at sunset in the cemetery of Villar Perosa, the small town set amongst the Piedmont mountains which is the Agnelli family cradle and tomb. The luge champion from Alto Adige, dressed in the silver jacket which Italy athletes paraded in during the Opening Ceremony, was punctual in arriving at the top of the hill where the gate to the old cemetery is situated. Deeply moved, the chilly Armin confessed. “I am here for the first time. It is an honour for me”. Then he climbed up the hill, step by step, followed by the large delegation from Coni: the President Gianni Petrucci, the mission head Raffaele Pagnozzi, the President of the Federation Coppi and Bolognini, the luge team coach Marco Andreatta, and then lots of interested people, fans, and children.

Senator Giovanni Agnelli’s relationship with the XX Olympic Winter Games was a very deep one. It went back to the candidature period: his personal efforts and his work in the area of international persuasion contributed in a very significant way to the successful outcome of Torino’s Olympic Games candidature.
 

The XX Winter Olympic Games kicked off last Friday in Fiat's home city of Turin with a glittering Opening Ceremony' that was watched on television by more than two billion people across the globe.

ARMIN ZOEGGELER

The first Italian athlete to win a gold medal at Torino 2006 Armin Zoeggeler, led a delegation on Tuesday to Villar Perosa, the Agnelli family's home village in the Pdemontese mountains, to pay tribute to the 'Avvocato' the driving force behind Turin's successful candidature.


Mr Agnelli had been appointed honorary member of the IOC in 2000 by the President of the time, Juan Antonio Samaranch, after serving in 1999 as part of the “IOC 2000” Committee, appointed to rewrite the rules of the Olympic movement. In his position as an honorary member of the IOC, the “Avvocato” took part in the General Assembly on July 10th 2001 in Moscow that terminated the mandate of Juan Antonio Samaranch, and welcomed the new IOC President, Jacques Rogge.

After he had led the delegation to Agnelli's graveside, Armin Zoeggeler met with the Avvocato’s heir, John Elkann, the relative that the grandfather had indicated to be his successor. Elkann did not delay proceedings, he greeted Armin, before opening the door of the chapel and starting the emotional visit to the crypt. Zoeggeler asked a few questions before laying on the floor, in front of the tomb of the Avvocato, an evergreen composition created to be a homage to Italian sport: 'Il Coni con gratitudine' (Coni with gratitude) the writing on the bright blue and gold band enriching the basket read.

After his umpteenth triumph in the luge discipline, the athlete from Merano shows a little emotion after his win this week, the first gold medal to be awarded to the host nation Italy, in these Games: “Winning at home is really moving, it is very intense. This was the most difficult race of my career. It is a pleasure to drive the luge, it takes you to such levels. For this reason I will carry on competing as long as I feel this pleasure. You must have feeling with speed, and control the luge on the basis of the pressure that arrives from your body. You can’t see the track, you feel the speed and you react automatically: you drive by moving your feet, your shoulders and if necessary, especially in the most angled curves, your hands," he also added.
 

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14.02.2006

These are euphoric and exciting days for Fiat's home city of Turin, which has prepared for years to be ready for the XX Winter Olympic Games, and which now feels like it is the capital of the world for two weeks

Report & Photos: Torino 2006 / © 2006 Interfuture Media/Italiaspeed