Giovanni Malagò: The impact of an Olympics goes beyond costs
'We have invested in quality, the effects will be long-term' - Pietro Sighel, Laura Pirovano and René De Silvestro talk about Milano Cortina
The Olympics have had positive repercussions in terms of the country's image and economy, but these will produce their effects in terms of impact on the territory, an increase in local GDP and related tax revenues in the medium to long term. But 'there is a large section of media colleagues who want to interpret these numbers by highlighting only the cost side, which is not necessarily obvious and positive for the event. Investing in quality during the Winter Games was a precise shared choice, with which we wanted to give a message from our country, an investment for the whole of Italia. And, I repeat, there were positive spin-offs'.
The President of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Foundation, Giovanni Malagò, wished to emphasise the time discrepancies that make the evaluation of the Olympic budget complex, between immediate expenditures and more lasting economic returns, trying to circumscribe the Foundation's controversy.
During the panel 'From Olympic medals to the economy of life' at the Trento Festival of Economics, organised by the Il Sole 24 Ore Group and Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Malagò recalled the genesis of Italy's candidature for the Winter Games, after the sudden turnaround of the then Rome municipal administration on the 2024 Rome bid and the scepticism of the International Olympic Committee.
"We were good at taking advantage of the window that opened in our favour after the assignments of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games and leveraging the support that we had already secured," added Malagò. "After that, with all the difficulties of organising a widespread edition that was as sustainable as possible, we were good at creating an event that was unanimously appreciated.
The Games made us better (IOC President Kirsty Coventry promoted Italia, 'wonderful, beyond all expectations') and the sporting successes also made the event memorable: record number of Olympic medals (30) and Paralympic medals (16).
