T
Tony Raven
Guest
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=reu-pantanitext&prov=reuters&type=lgns
CESENATICO, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Following is the text of a note written by Italian cyclist
Marco Pantani on nine pages of his passport before his death, and read out at his funeral on
Wednesday his friend and former manager Manuela Ronchi. The note appeared to have been written
during a recent trip to Cuba. It was written in Italian and translated by Reuters. "For four years I
was in every court. I lost the desire to be like every other sportsman. But cycling paid and many
youngsters have lost faith in justice. I'm suffering with this letter.
"The world understands that all my colleagues have been humiliated in their hotel rooms with hidden
TV cameras, that tried to ruin many families. After that how can you not hurt yourself? "I don't
know why I stopped myself in these moments of anger if I made mistakes I'd like to know that there
is proof but when my sporting life and above all my private life was violated I lost a lot. "I'm in
this country and I want to say that "hasta la victoria" is a great thing for an athlete but it is
more difficult having given your heart for the sport with accidents and injuries. But I always got
back up. "What is left? Just a lot of anger and sadness for the violence of the judicial system. My
true story should be an example for other sports. Rules yes, but equal for everybody. "There's not a
job where you have to give your blood and where the families of your colleagues are woken up during
the night. "I was always afraid of being spied on at home, in hotels and by TV cameras. I ended up
hurting myself to not give up my intimacy, the intimacy of my girlfriend and of other colleagues who
also lost, of other families who like me were attacked. "Go and see what a cyclist is really like.
How many people were involved in my sadness as I tried to make a comeback with my dreams as a man
which were muddied by drugs, but after my life as an athlete. "If a bit of humanity helps us
understand and asks what makes us hope, when you make a real mistake you understand and you fight
with your heart. "This document is the truth. My hope is that real men or women can read it and
defend equal rules in sport for everybody. I'm not a liar, I feel hurt and everybody who believed in
me has to speak out."
CESENATICO, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Following is the text of a note written by Italian cyclist
Marco Pantani on nine pages of his passport before his death, and read out at his funeral on
Wednesday his friend and former manager Manuela Ronchi. The note appeared to have been written
during a recent trip to Cuba. It was written in Italian and translated by Reuters. "For four years I
was in every court. I lost the desire to be like every other sportsman. But cycling paid and many
youngsters have lost faith in justice. I'm suffering with this letter.
"The world understands that all my colleagues have been humiliated in their hotel rooms with hidden
TV cameras, that tried to ruin many families. After that how can you not hurt yourself? "I don't
know why I stopped myself in these moments of anger if I made mistakes I'd like to know that there
is proof but when my sporting life and above all my private life was violated I lost a lot. "I'm in
this country and I want to say that "hasta la victoria" is a great thing for an athlete but it is
more difficult having given your heart for the sport with accidents and injuries. But I always got
back up. "What is left? Just a lot of anger and sadness for the violence of the judicial system. My
true story should be an example for other sports. Rules yes, but equal for everybody. "There's not a
job where you have to give your blood and where the families of your colleagues are woken up during
the night. "I was always afraid of being spied on at home, in hotels and by TV cameras. I ended up
hurting myself to not give up my intimacy, the intimacy of my girlfriend and of other colleagues who
also lost, of other families who like me were attacked. "Go and see what a cyclist is really like.
How many people were involved in my sadness as I tried to make a comeback with my dreams as a man
which were muddied by drugs, but after my life as an athlete. "If a bit of humanity helps us
understand and asks what makes us hope, when you make a real mistake you understand and you fight
with your heart. "This document is the truth. My hope is that real men or women can read it and
defend equal rules in sport for everybody. I'm not a liar, I feel hurt and everybody who believed in
me has to speak out."
