She cannot digest her absence from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. This Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was contacted by Angela Romei, an Italian curling player who contests her non-selection for the Olympics on the grounds that the one who was preferred to her is the daughter of a team manager, the body announced on Thursday.
“The ad hoc chamber of the CAS registered two appeals by Angela Romei against the Italian Ice Sports Federation (FIGS) and against the International Curling Federation (WCL) concerning the selection of players who make up the Italian women’s curling team, indicated the CAS in its press release. Ms. Romei maintains that the composition of the team constitutes a conflict of interest, favoring the daughter of a FIGS technical director to the detriment of a more experienced and qualified athlete. »
“In her appeal against the FIGS, Ms. Romei asks the CAS to annul this decision and that the member of the contested team be replaced by herself. In her appeal against the WCF, Ms. Romei requests the CAS to annul the WCF’s decision and to order that the contested team member be replaced by herself,” explained the CAS. The body specified that a hearing would “be scheduled”, without giving a date.
“Technical” justifications?
The Romei affair caused a stir in Italy. Aged 28, Angela Romei has represented Italy six times at the World Championships and nine times at the European Championships, winning bronze at Euro 2017 and silver at Euro 2023. But to everyone’s surprise, she was not selected for the 2026 Olympics, the Italian Federation preferring Rebecca Mariani, 19 years old and without experience in senior competitions, daughter of the technical director Italian national Marco Mariani.
When her non-selection was announced, Romei declared in the Italian press that she was “destroyed”. The Italian Federation justified its decision “taken by its coaches solely for technical reasons”, explaining that “Rebecca Mariani in the role of substitute has playing characteristics which allow her to occupy all four positions (in curling), unlike Romei, who only occupied one”.
