(1 Jan 2014) A group of daredevil Italian divers welcomed in the New Year on Wednesday in spectacular fashion, leaping off a bridge in Rome into the icy Tiber River below.
The four divers played to the watching crowd as they leapt off Cavour Bridge, at a height of more than 50 feet (17 metres) from the water below.
The event is a New Year tradition dating back to 1946, when an unemployed lifeguard who was trying to find work as a stunt man leapt into the waters from Cavour Bridge to advertise his skills.
Since then, it has caught on as an annual event, and hundreds of people gathered to watch the men jump off the bridge.
The crowd favourite was veteran Maurizio Palmulli who completed his 26th New Year dive and dedicated it to "the Roman people, mothers and fathers who have children without jobs."
The four men also wanted to bring international attention to a controversial stem-cell treatment offered by the Stamina Foundation which was recently banned in Italy and declared illegal by the Ministry of Health.
"Neurological patients are without hope, because the government has banned this kind of compassionate treatment. We are also here to give neurological patients a chance of being able to hope again," said diver Simone Carabella.
Protesters carrying banners, and neurological patients in wheelchairs, wearing black t-shirts with "I do not want to die" written on them in Italian, gathered on the bridge as well, asking the government to let them be treated with the controversial therapy.
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