Italian
The Olympic and Paralympic medalists of Milan Cortina 2026 continued their meeting with the institutions, being received first by Pope Leo XIV and then at Palazzo Chigi
ROME – The celebrations for the medalists and the fourth-place finishers of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games continued yesterday. After the ceremony of the handover of the Tricolor to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale and the celebration evening at Casina Valadier, it was the turn of Pope Leo XIV and the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In the Clementine Hall, the second loggia of the Apostolic Palace, the athletes presented the Pope with the Olympic and Paralympic uniforms and the two torches, and were then personally greeted one by one.
The first to speak was the President of CONI:
“Holy Father, on behalf of the Italian National Olympic Committee and all of Italian sport, I wish to express our sincerest gratitude for welcoming us today and for the constant attention you dedicate to the world of sport. Your words represent a valuable guide for us: a continuous reminder of the most authentic values of sport, such as respect, solidarity, sacrifice, and a sense of community. Values that go far beyond competition and contribute to shaping better women and men.
Our athletes, in addition to winning and making us proud, commit every day to concretely share their message, not only in competitions but also in everyday life, becoming positive examples especially for the younger generations. Holy Father, we thank you for your support and for the moral strength you convey to our movement. We will continue to uphold these principles with responsibility and pride, so that sport remains a tool for growth, inclusion, and peace. Thank you from the heart.”
Then it was the turn of CIP President Marco Giunio De Sanctis: “Your Holiness, we have had the pleasure, the honor, and the fortune of personally knowing your predecessors Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. However, I believe this represents a unique, historic, and unrepeatable occasion because it has brought together here before you the world of Olympic and Paralympic sport.
This is a great moment. I know that you are a man of sports and that you are close to our world just as our movement is close to the Catholic Church. We have values that are inherent to those of Christianity, from loyalty to fair play to inclusion, regardless of race, traditions, or any background. Our task is to welcome and engage with everyone fairly both during a competition and outside of it, without neglecting what the Church has promoted for millennia.
Especially regarding the Paralympic world, there should no longer be any differences, and we must open the doors to respect, integration, and full inclusion, not just in words but in actions. All these great athletes gathered here today who have honored our country dedicate their medals to you so that each of us can become a better citizen and truly believe in those values that the Church has upheld for so long.”
The speech of Pope Leo XIV
These are finally the words of Pope Leo XIV:
“I welcome you with joy after the end of the Winter Games in Milan Cortina 2026, which have spread around the world, along with high-level competitions, a noble human, cultural, and spiritual message. Thank you for what you have witnessed. Sport, when authentically experienced, is not just a performance, but a form of language, a story made of gestures, effort, waiting, falls, and comebacks.
During the Games, we saw not only bodies in motion but stories, stories of sacrifice, discipline, and tenacity. Particularly in the Paralympic competitions, we observed how limits can become a place of revelation, not something that hinders a person but something that can be transformed, even transfigured into a binding quality. You athletes have become biographies that inspire many people.
Secondly, your teamwork reminds us that no one wins alone, because behind every victory many are involved: from family to teams, many days of training, pressure, and solitude. It is often in these moments that God reveals Himself. Sports contribute to the maturation of our character, require a holy spirituality, and a fruitful form of education. From sports, we learn to know our bodies without idolizing them, to govern our emotions, to compete without losing the sense of brotherhood, to accept defeat without despair, and victory without arrogance.
Training the mind alongside the body, sports are authentic when they remain human, that is, when they stay true to their original vocation: to be a school of life and talent. A school where one learns that true success is measured by the quality of relationships, not by the amount of prizes but by mutual respect, by the shared joy of the game. This is the abundant life that the Gospel speaks of: a life full of meaning, a life in which physicality and spirituality find harmony. This is the reason for choosing this evangelical expression as the title of the letter I wrote specifically for the beginning of the Games: Life in Abundance.
In the current time, marked by polarization, rivalries, and conflicts that lead to devastating wars, your commitment takes on even greater significance. Sport can and must truly become a space for encounter, not a display of strength but an exercise in relationship. I wanted to remind you on the occasion of these Games of the value of the Olympic Truce: with your presence, you have made this possibility of peace visible as a prophecy, not mere rhetoric. Breaking the logic of violence to promote that of encounter.
At the same time, we know well that sports also bring with them certain temptations: the temptation of performance at any cost, which can lead to doping; the temptation of profit that transforms play into a market and the athlete into a star; the temptation of sensationalism that reduces the athlete to an image or a number. Against these trends, your testimony is essential. Dear athletes, you have been witnesses to a honest and beautiful way of inhabiting the world, bringing the idea that one can compete without hating, that one can win without humiliating, that one can lose without losing oneself. And this applies beyond sports, in social life, in politics, in relations between peoples, because sports, when lived well, becomes a laboratory of reconciled humanity, where diversity is not a threat but a richness.
In an era of great climate challenges, these Games remind us of the connection between sport and nature and our duty to take care of our common home. Today, in this room, we look at the cross of athletes, the Olympic and Paralympic cross, which from the London 2012 Games to the Milan Cortina 2026 collects the prayers, hopes, fears, and sufferings of the women and men who, at every age, share their sporting experiences. In front of this supreme and essential example of dedication, we renew the desire to give our best, together, in every activity. Dear athletes, I thank all of you for your commitment and pray that Jesus Christ, the true athlete of God, inspires each of you with ever more virtuous challenges and grants you the strength to live them with passion. As I accompany you with my blessing, I entrust you with a mission: to continue ensuring that the person remains at the center of sport in all its expressions. Best wishes to all of you.”
The Blues at Palazzo Chigi
The last institutional commitment of the delegation of athletes and para-athletes from Milan Cortina was the meeting with the President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni at Palazzo Chigi.
The President of CONI Luciano Buonfiglio honored Meloni with a flag signed by the athletes, while the President of CIP Marco Giunio De Sanctis presented the torch of the Paralympic Games. The Prime Minister, in turn, gifted the blue team boxes containing the tricolor and commemorative medals.
Photo Andrea Masini/CONI
