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Giovanni Malagò, No. 1 of IOC Italy, spoke in an interview with Italian newspaper Repubblica about the scandal that swept away rhythmic gymnastics: many young athletes denounced abuses, verbal violence and training conditions bordering on humiliation.
Here are the words of Malagò: "As president of the Olympic Committee and reference point of Italian sport I feel the obligation to apologize to all the athletes and former athletes who have suffered due to inappropriate behavior.
As president of CONI I must apologize, but I must also invite you not to make a shit out of everything: whoever made a mistake, if someone made a mistake, will pay. It is necessary to understand, once the cases have been ascertained, because, let us remember, no judge has yet expressed himself, the real dimension of the phenomenon.
Gymnastics more than other sports has one of its crucial aspects in the question of weight. A certain degree of rigor and 'toughness' is inevitable. It is different when you cross the line and from rigor it borders on violence, humiliation, harassment.
But I repeat, all this has yet to be ascertained. In any case, it must be understood if only the individuals were wrong or if there was a system that led them to make mistakes. In this second case we could speak of strict responsibility, of everyone, including Coni.
If, on the other hand, we were faced with so many autonomous situations, it would only be a problem of the individual subjects." Emanuela Maccarani, technical director of the Italian rhythm team, is at the center of the scandal.
Malagò however said: "Emanuela is by far the coach who has won the most titles. She is extraordinary from a human and professional point of view. I don't think there are reasons to question her role. Her role is important.
The current Farfalle are linked in a formidable way to Emanuela and I don't think they are plagiarized. Every now and then someone has a hard time withstanding stress, it happens in every sport. I have not created a correlation between that fact and other elements. I'd ask what happened. In fact, I'll definitely call her. "