The prestigious Olympic Museum in Sarajevo hosted the first edition of the 'Day of Italian Sport in the World', organised by the Italian Embassy in Bosnia Herzegovina. The guests of honour were Olympic champion Paola Magoni, Gold Medalist in the special slalom at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games, who is still very popular in Bosnia Herzegovina, and journalist Lorenzo Fabiano, author of the book 'Sarajevo '84. The days of concord'. The event had its main focus on skiing and winter sports, also with the aim of promoting the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
In the presence of the Deputy Mayor of Sarajevo Anja Margetić, representatives of the Olympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and several representatives of the international community, the two guests retraced the beginnings of the Olympic champion's career, up to her winning the Gold Medal on 17 February 1984: the first Olympic gold medal for Italian women's alpine skiing (until a few years earlier, as was recalled, there was not even an Italian women's skiing delegation), which came as a surprise to reward a 19-year-old girl who, until then, did not even have a podium finish in World Cup races to her credit. "The wish," concluded the two guests, in one of the most applauded moments of the day, "is to see again the extraordinary tracks around Sarajevo as a stage for the World Cups.
In his introductory speech, Ambassador Marco Di Ruzza emphasised the reasons that led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to place sport at the centre of 'diplomacy of growth', in the awareness of how it can be an extraordinary tool for the projection of the Italian System, narrating territories, culture, industrial and technological excellence. 'Sports diplomacy,' added Di Ruzza, 'can make a considerable contribution to the promotion of values of peace and brotherhood, in deference to a phrase by Pierre De Coubertin that is displayed at the entrance to the Olympic Museum and that I like to recall often: sport is a destroyer of walls. A concept,' concluded Di Ruzza, 'that permeates all Italian cultural diplomacy in Bosnia Herzegovina, which also intends to contribute to the paths of reconciliation in the country, essential for its European horizons, strongly supported by Italy.
As Fabiano himself recalled, the Sarajevo Olympics also represented an important junction in the process that led skiing to leave behind the name of 'elitist sport', expanding the number of skiers in our country and indirectly leading to the creation of a reference market, also in the field of clothing. It was precisely this consideration that made it possible to include an element of valorisation of Italian production chains linked to the world of sport in the Day. This was made possible thanks to the participation of UYN Sport, an Italian company active in Bosnia and Herzegovina through its subsidiary SM3 in the production of high-tech clothing for sports use, which also collaborates with the Italian national ski team. Some of UYN Sport's products were in fact exhibited in the Museum. SM3 has been present in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian town of Tešanj since 2003 and now employs over 500 people. It is a success story in both business and social terms, considering that the company invested in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war and employs multi-ethnic staff.
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