{"id":122333,"date":"2026-08-21T23:27:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T21:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/?p=122333"},"modified":"2026-08-22T08:34:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T06:34:59","slug":"i-xx-giochi-del-mediterraneo-aperti-a-taranto-dal-presidente-sergio-mattarella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/i-xx-giochi-del-mediterraneo-aperti-a-taranto-dal-presidente-sergio-mattarella\/","title":{"rendered":"The 20th Mediterranean Games opened in Taranto by President Sergio Mattarella"},"content":{"rendered":"

TARANTO \u2013 At <\/span>Erasmo Iacovone Stadium in Taranto<\/span>\u00a0it was staged\u00a0<\/span>opening ceremony of the XX Mediterranean Games<\/span>. For the fourth time in history, Italy hosts the event and it was the\u00a0<\/span>President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella<\/span>\u00a0to open the event on a memorable evening also attended by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Five heads of state were present at the ceremony, in addition to host Sergio Mattarella: those of Albania, Lebanon, Libya, North Macedonia, and the Regent of Kosovo; two prime ministers, in addition to Giorgia Meloni, were those of Algeria and Serbia. The President of the Republic of Croatia delegated her sports advisor, Tomislav Pa\u0161kvalin (Olympic gold medalist in 1984 and 1988 and a World Cup winner in 1986 with Yugoslavia), who during his career played for, among others, Pro Recco and AN Brescia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also in attendance at the Erasmo Iacovone Stadium were Senate President Ignazio La Russa, Chamber of Deputies President Lorenzo Fontana, Vice President of the Constitutional Court Luca Antonini, Ministers Andrea Abodi, Tommaso Foti, Orazio Schillaci, and Gianmarco Mazzi, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Raffaele Fitto, President of the Association of European Olympic Committees Spyros Capralos, representing the International Olympic Committee, Mehrez Boussayene, who became President of the International Confederation of the Mediterranean Games in January following the passing of the late Davide Tizzano, newly elected President of the International Confederation of the Mediterranean Games Francesco Purromuto, CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio, President of Sport e Salute Marco Mezzaroma, CEO of Sport e Salute Diego Nepi Molineris, President of the Taranto 2026 Organizing Committee Massimo Ferrarese, and other dignitaries from the worlds of politics and sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ceremony opened with the Italian flag being carried and handed over to the Cuirassiers by Antonella Palmisano, the only Apulian woman in Italy's history to win an Olympic gold medal (the 20km walk at Tokyo 2020). During the flag-raising ceremony, the Italian national anthem resounded. <\/span>Then came the parade of delegations led by their respective flag bearers. For Team Italy, Irma Testa and Filippo Tortu, along with approximately 270 athletes and officials representing 15 federations and 16 sports, including the men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, and men's handball teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Navy brought and raised the flag of the International Confederation of the Mediterranean Games, whose anthem resounded, then the President of the Taranto 2026 Organizing Committee Massimo Ferrarese took the floor<\/span> e <\/span>the President of the International Confederation of Mediterranean Games Mehrez Boussayene.<\/span><\/p>\n

The culminating moment was the speech by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who declared the XX Mediterranean Games open. Mauro De Filippis (skeet shooting) read the athletes' oath, and Flavia Bonanni (fencing) read the judges' oath.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, Valentina Rodini, Olympic gold medalist at Tokyo 2020 in the lightweight rowing pair sculls with Federica Cesarini, winner of the lightweight single sculls at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona and current member of the CONI Board, represented the Italian team in the traditional Water Ceremony.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TARANTO – Allo Stadio Erasmo Iacovone di Taranto\u00a0\u00e8 andata in scena la\u00a0cerimonia di apertura dei XX Giochi del Mediterraneo. Per la quarta volta nella storia l\u2019Italia ospita l\u2019evento ed \u00e8 stato il\u00a0Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella\u00a0a dichiarare aperta la manifestazione in una serata memorabile a cui ha preso parte anche la Premier Giorgia Meloni. Cinque […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":122335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sb_editor_width":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[800,693],"tags":[1347,2311,2451,2456,1962,2454,2450,2446,2439,2441,1961,2442,2443,2351,1343,2452,2453,2449,2445,2447,2438,2448,2440,2444,2455],"ppma_author":[814],"class_list":["post-122333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-altri-sport","category-in-primo-piano","tag-andrea-abodi","tag-antonella-palmisano","tag-diego-nepi-molineris","tag-federica-cesarini","tag-filippo-tortu","tag-flavia-bonanni","tag-francesco-purromuto","tag-gianmarco-mazzi","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-ignazio-la-russa","tag-irma-testa","tag-lorenzo-fontana","tag-luca-antonini","tag-luciano-buonfiglio","tag-marco-mezzaroma","tag-massimo-ferrarese","tag-mauro-de-filippis","tag-mehrez-boussayene","tag-orazio-schillaci","tag-raffaele-fitto","tag-sergio-mattarella","tag-spyros-capralos","tag-tomislav-paskvalin","tag-tommaso-foti","tag-valentina-rodini"],"relative_dates":{"created":"1 month ago","modified":"1 month ago"},"authors":[{"term_id":814,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sorrentino","display_name":"Eugenio Sorrentino","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-30-alle-09.16.20.png","url2x":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-30-alle-09.16.20.png"},"first_name":"Eugenio","last_name":"Sorrentino","user_url":"","author_category":"0","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122334,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122333\/revisions\/122334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122333"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=122333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}