Mario Pescante

Mario Pescante

Mario Pescante (born July 7, 1938 in Avezzano ) is an Italian politician and sports official. From 2009 to 2012 he was Vice President of the International Olympic Committee .

Life

Pescante studied law at the La Sapienza University in Rome , was active as a middle-distance runner and in 1955 was 1500m of the Unione Italiana Sport Per tutti (= Italian workers' sport ) and in 1957 Italian university champion over 1000m. He was initially a volunteer sports advisor at his university. After graduating from 1968 to 1973, he was appointed assistant to the chair for finance and business law in the law faculty of his university and since then has regularly given lectures, mostly on sports law. He was the sports director of the Italian Athletics Federation ( FIDAL ) and founded the international Bruno Zauli Memorial Sports Festival in Rome in 1964 . In 1973 he became general secretary of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), in which he was elected full-time president in 1993. He was Chef de Mission of the Italian team at seven Summer Olympics and five Winter Games, and was elected to the International Olympic Committee in 1994. In the same year he founded the Italian National Olympic Academy , in 1996 he helped the European Committee for Sports History to hold its 1st congress in the Italian training center in Aqua Acetosa .

In 1998 he resigned as president as he assumed responsibility for the doping scandal in Italian football. In the following parliamentary election (2001) he ran on the Berlusconi list for Lazio , was elected and became State Secretary for Youth and Sport in the 2nd and 3rd Berlusconi Cabinet, so that he became the superior of his successor as President of CONI. He has been a member of the Italian Parliament since then and is currently (2015) Chairman of the Commission for European Affairs.

From 2001 to 2006 he was Vice President of the Association of National Olympic Committees, member of the Executive Committee of the IOC (2006–2009), 2009–2012 he was the first Italian ever to be elected Vice President of the IOC. He resigned prematurely because he saw himself disavowed by the Italian government as chairman of the bid committee for the 2020 Olympic Games in Rome because the Italian government had withdrawn its support for Mario Monti . In 2014, he opposed the interference of American President Barack Obama in matters relating to the Olympic Games in Sochi , as he had called for actions by American homosexual athletes in Sochi.

He is a member of the Italian telecommunications board of directors STET ( Società Finanziaria Telefonica e Telecomunicazioni ), a member of the supervisory board of the BNL ( Banca Nazionale del Lavoro - Sezione Crediti Speciali ), and a member of the supervisory board for the granting of loans for sports facilities ( Banca di credito speciale per gli impianti sportivi ). Pescante is married and has three daughters.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Arnd Krüger & Angela Teja (eds.): La comune eredità dello sport in Europe: atti del 1st Seminar Europeo di Storia dello Sport; Roma, Scuola dello Sport - CONI 29 November - 1 December 1996.
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on November 28, 2015 
3. ↑ http://nuovo.camera.it/29?shadow_deputato=300456 accessed on November 28, 2015
4. ↑ http://www.olympic.org/mr-mario-pescante accessed on November 28, 2015
5. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ioc-s-mario-pescante-slams-us-for-gay-athletes-in-sochi-1.2498901 accessed on November 28, 2015