2023 CANOE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN AURONZO. ZAIA, “WHEREVER THERE IS HIGH LEVEL SPORT, THERE IS THE VENETO”

18 October 2022 - Comunicato n° 2121 - (AVN) Venice, 18 October 2022

“Wherever there is high-level sport, there is the Veneto, as is in the case of the first canoe world championships on a natural lake instead of in an artificial basin, as will occur in Auronzo di Cadore in 2023”.

That was how the President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, during a press conference held at Palazzo Balbi in Venice, presented the Canoe World Championships for the Junior and Under 23 categories that will be held in the extraordinary surroundings of Lake Santa Caterina. The event was attended by a large delegation of athletes and professionals from Auronzo, with, among others, the Mayor Dario Vecellio Galeno, the President of the Province Roberto Padrin, and the manager of the Organising Committee, Andrea Bedin.

The championships will see 1,300 athletes from 80 nations, 700 operators including managers, operators and staff, and with over 50 journalists. An estimated television audience of 2 million viewers is expected, with live streaming in 43 countries, a presence of 200,000 spectators on the competition field, and over 10 million contacts on the web.

An excellent deal, both on a purely sporting level and on that of the important image presented of the entire Veneto mountain area, and also on an economic level, because the estimates speak of about one million in organisational costs compared to 3.5 million (by default) of income

It was underlined during today's presentation that the World Championships in Auronzo will be the "bridge" to the future for the world canoe, hosting many talents who over the next years will become the protagonists of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, and it is an event that brings Italian canoeing closer to the Senior World Championships in Milan 2025.

From the beginning of the candidacy for the World Championships, the Organising Committee has put environmental sustainability at its centre: the basic philosophy is to make the most of existing installations, and to make sustainable, re-usable or reversible interventions at the end of the event.

The most significant logistical intervention is that aimed at not congesting the centre of Auronzo by setting up a parking interchange in the Cima Gogna area, from which it will be possible to reach the competition area by shuttle buses. The entire area surrounding the lake will also be reserved for pedestrians, with access reserved only for the organisation's vehicles and rescue services.

Attention will also be paid to other environmental aspects: differentiated waste collection in the competition area and athletes' village, sustainable meal supply service thanks to the use of recyclable/biodegradable materials, public water distribution points, the water of the Dolomites, which is of high quality, using reusable water bottles and avoiding plastic bottles as much as possible.

It is important to underline the particular conformation the competition field - it is an alpine lake subject to the normal cycle of the seasons and to the influx of debris material from the surrounding mountains. This has made it necessary to carry out important preparatory and adaptation works of the Ansiei stream and of Lake Santa Caterina itself, in order to reach the international standards required for this discipline such as the depth of 2 meters respected throughout the competition field and in the area of arrival of the canoes.

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