Valentina Vezzali has been appointed Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, with responsibility for Sport. The Council of Ministers decided this, on the proposal of President Mario Draghi.
Undersecretary for Sport in Mario Draghi's government, Valentina Vezzali, a fencing athlete and successful mother from Jesi, has a full life.
The victories
At 47, the most medaled woman in all of Italian sport: six-time Olympian (three times in a row in individual foil, three in team foil), thirteen-time world champion, and then one silver and two bronze at the Games, six silvers and four bronzes at the World Championships.
Beyond national borders, Vezzali is among the longest-serving Olympic athletes. Her first time on the podium was in Atlanta '96, the last in London in 2012. She is among the five athletes in the world to have climbed onto the podium for five consecutive Olympic editions, among the six to have won gold in her specialty three times in a row. An icon of world sport, in short, to whom the IOC asked to donate the tracksuit from the third gold won in Beijing to display in its museum in Lausanne, among Carl Lewis' shoes and Sotomayor's shorts.
Four years later, the homage comes from Italian sport, which chooses her as the flag bearer at the opening ceremony of London 2012. Between one competition and another, Valentina does not give up being a mother. Her firstborn, Pietro, in 2005, and she brings him on the podium in Beijing; the second, Andrea, immediately after London, and a few months after having given birth again on the podium to prepare for the last World Championship, until the bronze in Kazan 2014.
In 2009 she participated in 'Dancing with the Stars', and with Sport e Salute she made herself available with the Legend project to spread sport in social projects, she who with the Fiamme Oro group of which she is a part takes care of young people.
Her vocation for commitment had resulted in the seat as a member of parliament obtained with Monti's Civic List: she remained in Parliament from 2013 to 2018, once again crossing paths with politics that provoked one of the most heated controversies.
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