ROME - And so, while the leitmotif of the flag handover ceremony at the Quirinale had been pride in representing Italy, the defining feeling of the audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace - attended by the Olympic and Paralympic athletes of Milano Cortina- was above all the emotion of shaking the Holy Father’s hand and listening to his words.
For some, like CONI president Luciano Buonfiglio, it was the fulfilment of a dream: “From the very first day I was elected, I wanted to be here,” he said, also expressing gratitude to the Pope for having “celebrated the values of sport, which are the values of life”.
For others, it was an opportunity to dedicate their medals to the Holy Father “so that each of us can carry forward the values of the Church and of life”, as CIP president Marco Giunio De Sanctis noted.
As for the athletes - reminded by Pope Leo XIV that sport carries temptations to be resisted, such as “the pursuit of performance at all costs, which can lead to doping,” and praised as “witnesses to an honest and beautiful way of inhabiting the world” - what remained above all was the emotion of the encounter.
“I had never had the opportunity to meet the Pope - it was incredibly moving,” admitted Italian skier Sofia Goggia. For Federica Brignone, it was “one of those days that leaves you with lasting truths,” while speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida described seeing the Holy Father as “an indescribable emotion, almost as powerful as taking part in the Olympics.”
It was a day lived in a single, breathless sweep.
Following the papal audience, the Italian delegation was welcomed at Palazzo Madama for an event promoted by senator and Paralympian Giusy Versace, who presented them with a bronze Senate coin.
She recalled how “at a time like this, it is essential to keep the spotlight on the values of sport, on the Olympic spirit, and on what the Milano Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games have represented”, describing it also as “a moment to reflect on sport as a tool for inclusion and healthy competition, capable of overcoming many barriers.”
The day continued at Palazzo Chigi, where the athletes met Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. They signed the Italian tricolour, while the CIP gifted a symbolic representation of the Games’ flame.
After greeting each athlete and presenting them with a commemorative box featuring the Italian flag, Meloni “congratulated us and encouraged us to keep going in our personal and sporting challenges,” Goggia said. Waiting for them outside were the applause of fans- one final highlight in a day rich with emotion.
Sport, the Pope said, is a space for encounter and dialogue, but it also carries temptations: “the pursuit of performance at any cost, which can lead to doping; the lure of profit, which turns play into a market and the athlete into a celebrity; the drive for spectacle, which reduces the athlete to an image or a number. Against these distortions, your testimony is essential”.
He emphasised that athletes have been “witnesses to an honest and beautiful way of inhabiting the world. You carry the idea that one can compete without hatred, win without humiliating, and lose without losing oneself. And this applies beyond sport - it applies to social life, to politics, to relations between peoples. Because sport, when lived well, becomes a laboratory of reconciled humanity, where diversity is not a threat, but a richness”.
“In an era of major climate challenges,” Pope Leo XIV added, “these Games also remind us of the link between sport and nature, and of our duty to care for our common home.”
