Singer Achille Lauro (R) and producer and DJ Edoardo Manozzi (aka Boss Doms) pass the torch at the Colosseum in Rome on December 6

Rome (AFP) - Persistent complaints by former Italian Olympians that they had been snubbed as relay torchbearers in favour of celebrities drew a reaction Tuesday from politicians led by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

“There is no respect for us champions,” cross-country skier Silvio Fauner, a five-time Olympic medallist, told Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview that echoed earlier complaints by alpine skier Kristian Ghedina about the relay, which began in Rome on December 4.

Fauner complained that quiz show celebrity Gabriele Sbattella had been preferred.

“I consider this an incredible insult,” said Fauner, who won gold as a member of the Italian relay team in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.

Milan-Cortina Olympic organisers responded that Fauner was a councillor in his home town of Sappada in the Alps.

“A political function,” said the statement, means Fauner is “specifically excluded” from the relay.

Fauner said in his interview that he was speaking on behalf of his Olympic team-mate Marco Albarello and Turin 2006 gold medallists Giorgio Di Centa, Cristian Zorzi and Pietro Piller Cottrer.

“We are all angry,” Fauner said. “We have not been involved in any way in any initiative for the Winter Olympics in our country. No torchbearers, no ambassadors, no role whatsoever. Nothing.”

“They preferred people from the entertainment world… and singers who do not embody Olympic sport,” he added.

The organisers responded that plenty of athletes had carried the torch.

“During its first 36 stages, the relay has already welcomed a significant number of Italian champions, including many Olympic medallists, mostly from winter disciplines, and from different generations,” said the Milan-Cortina statement.

Ghedina made similar comments last month, but Fauner’s statements triggered a reaction from politicians.

“The choice of torchbearers is incomprehensible and disconcerting. All the more so since it was not discussed with Matteo Salvini’s Ministry of Transport, which has been more committed than anyone else to making the Games happen,” wrote Salvini’s far-right League party in a statement.

Sports Minister Andrea Abodi has asked the organising committee and the Italian Olympic Committee for “information to understand what the selection criteria were”.

“In principle, it is obvious that sports legends, those who have made history, should be held in very high and absolute esteem. I too was a bit surprised,” said Abodi.

The torch will pass through the hands of 10,001 bearers across Italy on its two-month, 12,000-kilometre journey to the San Siro stadium in Milan for the opening ceremony on February 6.