Invictus Games: Minister Trenta delivers the Tricolor to the GSPD

(To Greater Defense)
03/10/18

In a few weeks the Invictus Games will start in Sidney, the Paralympic international military games in which again this year the athletes of the GSPD will take part: in fact, 17 athletes of the Paralympic Defense Sports Group will face the fourth edition of the games that will take place in Sydney from 20 to 27 October.

They will start with the Tricolore that this morning the Minister of Defense, Elisabetta Trenta, handed over to the captain of the Team, Lieutenant Colonel Gianfranco Paglia, Gold Medal for Military Valor, in the Olympic Sports Center of the Army, in Rome.

The opportunity to greet the departure of the athletes of the Paralympic Defense Sports Group (GSPD) for another very important international sporting competition.

"It is not a merely symbolic fact: the Tricolor is the emblem of the nation, which unites us and identifies us as a people" said Minister Trenta who, addressing the athletes of the GSPD, added: "In the days when the Invictus Games will take place, thousands of kilometers away from Italy, each of you will represent the Italian people, each of you will be our Flag in front of the whole world. It is a great responsibility, but also an extraordinary opportunity".

"All of us can not help but admire your ability to get back into the game, to have wanted to continue wearing the uniform to consolidate the value of the oath given for the good of the country" he added.

On the occasion, Minister Trenta confirmed the Defense's commitment to ensure maximum attention to Paralympic sport and military sport in general: "Both, in their specificity, live and feed on that same daily commitment, that same passion and convinced dedication that characterize all men and women who work for the security and defense of our country.".

Altogether eighteen nations will take part in the Sidney Invictus Games, including Italy, the United States, Canada, Afghanistan, France, Australia, Romania, Iraq, Ukraine. Eleven disciplines on the program and about 500 athletes, true protagonists of these international Paralympic games dedicated to soldiers who have contracted disabilities in service or due to service.