Motorcycling isn’t one of the specialities of the Olympics, but that hasn’t stopped nine time World Champion Valentino Rossi from adding his name to the roster of 60 high profile Italian athletes who signed a letter – that will be published today in eight major newspapers – to ask Prime Minister Monti to sustain the candidacy of Rome to host the 2020 Olympics.
Besides Rossi, other signers include Francesco Totti, Gianluigi Buffon, Federica Pellegrini, Yuri Chechi, Josefa Idem, Valentina Vezzali, Antonio Rossi, Deborah Compagnoni, Igor Cassina, Alex Zanardi and Fiona May.
Since the new and non elected Monti government has been busy trying to solve other much more pressing problems (sovereign debt and put in place wide sweeping reforms) the candidacy of Rome hasn’t been their top priority, hence the ‘Dear Monti, Sign’ letter.
The government has less than a week to inform the International Olympic Committee whether Italy will be able to financially support hosting the 2020 Olympics.