Italian NPC to allow athletes to train for free at national centre

The CIP will give disabled athletes free use of its facilities ©CIP

The Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP) has announced it will give disabled athletes free admission to its Paralympic Training Center in Rome, for the whole of the 2020-2021 season.

Facilities will be open after the Executive Board held a video conference to approve the move.

A resolution stated that "all sports entities recognised by the CIP that carry out sports activities aimed exclusively at disabled athletes, and who will have the right to use the Paralympic Training Center, on days and times and with the methods which will be agreed with management according to the availability of the spaces, completely free of charge for the 2020/2021 sports season, without prejudice to the contractual obligations regarding insurance and safety".

The facilities will also be free for those who used them prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NPC Italy's Executive Board allocated € 5M to support sports societies suffering from the economic and health crisis due to #COVID19. It's a little help but so meaningful for us. We want to restart the Italian Paralympic Movement @CIPnotizie pic.twitter.com/NokM1YvJRF pic.twitter.com/PuQh9VucuV
— Luca Pancalli (@LucaPancalli) May 13, 2020

CIP President, Luca Pancalli, said: "We have decided to implement further interventions to support those sports entities that are paying a very high price in this emergency phase.

"We are talking about the beating heart of our movement, that is, of all those who daily and specifically take care of guaranteeing sports activities for many people with disabilities, often in need of assistance.

"This is a very significant contribution for us, we want to transform our Paralympic Preparation Center into a small base camp for the restart of the country in the name of sport and society."