VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Thursday praised athletes from the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games, saying sport "can and must truly become a space for encounter" in a world marked by "polarization, rivalry, and conflicts that escalate into devastating wars."
Speaking in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican on April 9, the Holy Father welcomed the athletes "with joy" shortly after the conclusion of the Winter Games and thanked them for their witness.
"Thank you for what you have shown," the pope said. "Truly, sport, when lived authentically, is not merely a performance: It is a form of language, a narrative made up of gestures, of effort, of anticipation, of falls, and of new beginnings."
Leo XIV said the games revealed not only athletic achievement but also "stories of sacrifice, of discipline, of tenacity."
"In particular, in Paralympic competitions we have seen how a limitation can become a source of revelation: not something that holds a person back but something that can be transformed, even transfigured into newfound qualities," he said. "You athletes have become life stories that inspire a great number of people."
The pope also emphasized the communal dimension of athletic success, saying: "No one wins alone."
"Your team spirit reminds us that no one wins alone, because behind every victory there are many people involved — from family to teams — as well as many days of training, pressure, and solitude," he said.
Quoting Psalm 18, he added: "It is often precisely in these moments that God reveals himself, as the psalmist sings: 'Thou didst give a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.'"
Leo XIV said sport helps mature the human person by fostering discipline, humility, and right relationships.
"Sport contributes to the maturing of our character, requires a steadfast spirituality, and is a fruitful form of education," he said. "By training the mind, along with the limbs, sport is authentic when it remains humane — that is, when it remains faithful to its first vocation: to be a school of life and talent."
"A school in which one learns that true success is measured by the quality of relationships: not by the amount of prizes but by mutual respect, by shared joy in the game," he continued.
Referring to his Feb. 6 apostolic letter "Life in Abundance," written for the occasion of the Olympics and Paralympics, the pope said the Gospel's vision of abundant life points to harmony between the physical and interior dimensions of the person.
Turning to the present global situation, Leo XIV said the athletes' witness carries special importance.
"At the present time, so marked by polarization, rivalry, and conflicts that escalate into devastating wars, your commitment takes on an even greater value: Sport can and must truly become a space for encounter!" he said. "Not a show of strength but an exercise in relationship."
Recalling the value of the Olympic truce, he thanked the athletes for making visible "this possibility of peace as a prophecy that is by no means rhetorical: breaking the logic of violence to promote that of encounter."
The pope also warned against distortions in sport, including doping, commercialism, and the reduction of athletes to mere spectacle.
"We are well aware that sport also brings with it certain temptations: that of performance at any cost, which can lead to doping; that of profit, which transforms the game into a market and the athlete into a star; that of spectacle, which reduces the athlete to an image or a number," he said. "Against these excesses, your witness is essential."
Leo XIV concluded by thanking the athletes for showing "an honest and beautiful way of inhabiting the world" and urged them to keep the human person at the center of sport in all its forms.
Following the audience, several of the athletes spoke to journalists about their experience of the audience and competing in the Winter Games, including speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida, who won two gold medals at Milan-Cortina this year.
"My goal was just to show that in my sport; I was able to combine, you know, being a mother and a top athlete," Lollobrigida told EWTN News. "I'm just doing this for the other women, you know, that maybe at some points during their career they want to stop to focus on the family and then to come back."
Nikko Landeros, an American-born Catholic who lost both his legs in 2007, represented Italy in ice hockey at the latest Paralympic games. He described to EWTN News the role of Catholicism in his athletic journey.
"At home, I started pretty much Catholic. You know, I went to Catholic school in the U.S. We've been going to church now... not as much as I should, but, you know, I still pray every day, and I'm thankful to be here. You know, if it weren't for God, I wouldn't be alive. So, you know, I'm super thankful," Landeros said.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
