Overview
- The Milano‑Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic delegation, received at the Vatican on Thursday, heard Pope Leone XIV call sport a place of encounter as athletes described the audience as deeply moving.
- The Pope warned against a drive for performance that can lead to doping, profit‑driven celebrity culture, and the spectacle that reduces athletes to images or numbers.
- He linked competition to peacemaking in a world at war and to care for the environment, saying the Games remind people to protect their common home.
- During the audience in the Sala Clementina, Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation president Giovanni Malagò presented the Olympic torch to the pontiff.
- After the Vatican visit, the group met Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Palazzo Chigi, signed the national tricolour, received commemorative gifts, and was joined by Italy’s Olympic and Paralympic chiefs and the sport minister.