Rotta was Italian champion in the four-man bobsleigh event who also competed in rowing, boxing, and fencing with success. From 1952 to 1960, he served as president of the Italian Bobsleigh Commission, part of the Italian Winter Sports Federation. Following the refusal of the Organizing Committee at Squaw Valley to construct a bobsleigh track for the 1960 Winter Olympics, he chaired the organization of the extraordinary event in Cortina d'Ampezzo that allowed bobsleigh to be held in spite of the 1960 Games.