Valentina Vezzali, undersecretary for sport and winner of three consecutive individual gold medals at the Olympics, is positive at Covid and will not be present at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Games representing Italy.
In place of the champion, Palazzo Chigi asked the Chinese organizers to accredit the Italian ambassador in Beijing, Luca Ferrari, to the ceremony.
The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is scheduled for next Friday, February 4th. China will be represented in the stands by its president, Xi Jinping. Among the heads of state who first responded to the invitation for the ceremony is Vladimir Putin (even though Russia does not have an official delegation of athletes for the doping ban). On the other hand, there will be no representatives and diplomats from a number of countries, including the USA, Great Britain and Australia, due to the declared diplomatic boycott against China.
