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Alberto Tomba, IOC vice president Nawal el Moutawakel, Paul Tergat, honorary IOC member Manuela Di Centa, Claudia Giordani, and Maria Rosa Quario presented awards to journalists who have participated in more than 10 Olympic Games during Journalist on the Podium ceremony held at the Teulié Military School in Milan. Over a thousand Games were covered, representing decades of stories, images, and reports that have illustrated sports to the world. The event was organized and promoted by AIPS, the International Sports Press Association.
On the eve of the Opening Ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games around 80 veteran Olympic journalists were honoured.
30 OLYMPIC GAMES With 30 Olympic Games (14 winter and 16 summer) coverage to his name, 84-year-old Italian photographer Giuliano Bevilacqua led the elite list of awardees who have covered 10 or more summer and winter Olympic Games, including Milano Cortina 2026. He is closely followed by 82-year-old Swiss journalist Hugo Steinegger with 29 and 76-year-old Frenchman Alain Lunzenfichter, who was unavoidably absent at the ceremony, with 28.
These legendary journalists, who have dedicated decades to the advancement of sports journalism and Olympism through their tireless work across various forms of media, received certificates, copies of Michael Payne’s autobiography “Fast Tracks and Dark Deals”, elegant boxes of creativity-driven candies from Amos Sweets, the main sponsors of the event, and neck warmers from Pelliot. Other attendees also received neck warmers and were treated to Amos Sweets as well.
SPECIAL GUESTS Sports legends, Olympic champions and IOC members were among the dignitaries who took on the role of presenting the awards to the journalists.
The special guests in attendance included Col. Antonio Calligaris, commander of the Teulié Military School, Amos Ma, founder and chairman of Amos Sweets, Federica Picchi, Lombardy Region’s Secretary for Sports, Marco Riva, president of CONI Lombardia, Ruiqi Liu, chairman of the board of HYX Group and Michael Payne, former IOC Head of Marketing.
The IOC members who joined the ceremony were vice-president Nawal Moutawakel, Paul Tergat, Morinari Watanabe and honorary member Manuela Di Centa.
ITALIAN SPORTS LEGENDS Alongside two-time Olympic champion Di Centa, other Italian sports legends in attendance were three-time Olympic gold medallist Alberto Tomba, Olympic silver medallist Claudia Giordani and two-time Olympian Maria Rosa Quario, the mother of Federica Brignone, who is also a journalist and has covered 10 Olympic Winter Games. They all featured in interview sessions during which they reflected on their careers and shared their expectations for the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.
SWEET MESSENGER “We would like to express our gratitude to AIPS for building this cross-cultural platform,” said Amos Ma, founder and chairman of Amos Sweets. He underlined that the company’s mission is to be a sweet messenger to the world, delivering happiness and health to global consumers.
He added: “Tomorrow the Games will officially open. I wish you all a successful coverage and may the 2026 Milano Cortina WInter Olympic Games be a great success.”
GREAT EXAMPLE OF VALUES Federica Picchi, Lombardy Region’s Secretary for Sports, said: “For me this is a great example of values, of a complete education… You guys have the responsibility of telling great stories. And thanks to you, we can see all the wins, all the feats, all the narratives that transfer great values to the younger generation.”
In his speech, Marco Riva, president of CONI Lombardia, also highlighted the important role of journalists in the sports ecosystem, and Gianfranco Coppola, president of the Italian Sports Press Association (USSI) mentioned that USSI (co-organisers of this year’s Journalists on the Podium) will celebrate its 80th anniversary this year.
After being invited on stage by Sky TG24’s Valentina Clemente, host of the event, AIPS president Gianni Merlo, who has covered 27 Olympic Games, presented the activities and projects that the International Sports Press Association has accomplished in recent years, especially the AIPS Centenary Celebration which took place during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games.
IOC vice president Nawal El Moutawakel, a pioneer of women's sport, stated: “It is fantastic to share the stage with Gianni, who was elected AIPS president in my country, Morocco, 21 years after my participation in Los Angeles 1984. I heartily thank the journalists for the passion and emotion with which they report on the performances of the champions and athletes.”
JOURNALISTS ON THE PODIUM The first edition of the AIPS Journalists on the Podium took place at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games with more than 100 Olympic journalists awarded Honav’s replica of the London 2012 Olympic torch. Since then this unique tradition has also left its mark at many other single-sport and multi-sport events. Paris 2024 marked the return of the Journalists on the Podium to the Olympics after a pandemic hiatus, with more than 100 journalists recognised at the UNESCO headquarters during the AIPS Centennial Celebration. This is the sixth time the event is taking place at the Olympics after London 2012 (Summer), Sochi 2014 (Winter), Rio 2016 (Summer), Pyeongchang 2018 (Winter) and Paris 2024 (Summer). The event was not held at Tokyo 2020, which took place in 2021, and Beijing 2022 due to the stringent COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time.
LIST OF JOURNALISTS RECOGNISED AT MILANO CORTINA 2026
Giuliano Bevilacqua (Italy) - 30
Hugo Steinegger (Switzerland) - 29
Alain Lunzenfichter (France) - 28
Gianni Merlo (Italy) - 27
Herbert Slavík (Czechia) - 23
Christine Brennan (USA) - 22
Soenar Chamid (Netherlands) - 21
Ernst Friedbert Raulf (Germany) - 21
Karen Rosen (USA) - 20
Brian Cazeneuve (USA) - 19
Charles Belle (USA) - 19
Delly Carr (Australia) - 19
Marek Rudzinski (Poland) - 19
Richard Demak (USA) - 19
Steve Wilson (USA) - 18
Sergio Renato Dovio (Argentina) -18
Rosie DiManno (Canada) - 18
Vincent Amalvy (France) - 18
Toshimi Oriyama (Japan) - 18
Franco Bragagna (Italy) - 18
Leonildo Turrini (Italy) - 17
Wakako Yuki (Japan) - 17
Michal Dusík (Czechia) - 16
Jacquelin Magnay (Australia) - 16
Flavio Vanetti (Italy) - 16
Paloma del Río (Spain) - 16
Alexander Hassenstein (Germany) - 16
Tsutomu Kishimoto (Japan) - 16
Georgi Banov (Bulgaria) - 16
Alan Baldwin (UK) - 15
Emanuela Audisio (Italy) - 15
Matthias Steiner (Germany) - 15
Julian Linden (Australia) - 15
Alan Abrahamson (USA) - 14
Lars Becker (Germany) - 14
Lewis Johnson (USA) - 14
Jari Porttila (Finland) 14
Giampaolo Giannoni (Switzerland) - 14
Ossian Shine (Ireland) 13
Konstantinos Vernikos (Greece) 13
Adrian Rodriguez Huber (Spain) 13
Matthias Hagst (Germany) 13
Alan Adams (Canada) 13
Donna Spencer (Canada) 13
Wang Jingyu (China) 13
Jianjie Cao (China) 13
Henrik Skiöld (Sweden) 13
Wei Zhang (China) 12
Momir Jelović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, UK) 12
Ferdinando Mezzelani (Italy) 12
Piotr Sobczynski (Poland) 12
Kaoru Watanabe (Japan) 12
Piotr Debowski (Poland) 12
Giacomo Spartaco Bertoletti (Italy) 12
Nick Mulvenney (UK) 11
Radoslaw Leniarski (Poland) 11
Prabhjot Paul (Canada) 11
Matteo Pacor (Italy) 11
Brian Pinelli (USA) 11
Gunnar Meinhardt (Germany) 11
Peter Szalmas (Hungary) 11
Anders Lindblad (Sweden) 11
Hongtao Luo (China) 11
Evgenii Sliusarenko (Russia) 11
Renze Lolkema (Netherlands) 11
Han Zhang (China) 11
Liu Yang (China) 11
Michal Osoba (Czechia) 10
Jolanda Bertole (Slovenia) 10
Joel Marklund (Sweden) 10
Kimmo Porttila (Finland) 10
Rob Longley (Canada) 10
Maria Rosa Quario (Italy) 10
Nikolay Balkanski (Bulgaria) 10
Jura Ozmec (Croatia) 10
Nick Hope (UK) 10
Paolo Nucci (Italy) 10
Andrey Kondrashov (Russia) 10
Igor Cimperman (Slovenia) 10
AIPS Media Photo by Carlo Pozzoni / AIPS Media
