Friday, July 25, 2008

Italy names 347 athletes for Beijing Olympics

BEIJING, July 25) -- Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) determined the final squad for Beijing Olympics during its July 23 meeting in Rome.
Three-hundred and forty-seven athletes are on the list -- 20 less than the number for Athens Olympics. There are 215 male athletes and 132 female ones, the latter comprising 39% of the total -- a larger percentage than 2004. Italy will be sending relatively more athletes to participate in individual events than for team sports. Teams will not be sent to compete in basketball, baseball or softball.
According to the Italian National Olympic Committee website, Italian athletes will participate in events including, track-and-field, swimming, water polo, volleyball, shooting, fencing and football. Forty-nine athletes will be competing in track-and-field, 34 in swimming, 26 in water polo and 24 in volleyball competition. Only one athlete has qualified for the badminton event – the country's smallest number of competitors for any one event.
CONI President, Giovanni Petrucci, and CONI Secretary-General and head of the Italian delegation to the Beijing Olympics, Raffaele Pagnozzi, told press Wednesday that without teams in basketball, baseball and softball, it would a challenge for the country to attain the same level of achievement as seen at the Athens Games where the country placed second in men's basketball. In 2004, Italy took home a total of 32 medals – 10 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze.
The Italian swim team left for Beijing on the evening of July 23 to begin adaptive training and participate in warm-up matches. The remainder of the Italian Olympic team will arrive in stages over the course of the coming week.
Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/official/noc/eoc/n214473500.shtml

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