Faster, higher, holier.
The newly formed Vatican Athletics team, which aims to compete in international competitions, including the Olympics, was on Thursday officially launched after reaching a bilateral agreement with the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI).
So far there are 60 members of Vatican Athletics — the first sports association constituted in the Holy See — including nuns, priests, Swiss guards and other workers.
Vatican Athletics president Monsignor Melchor Jose Sachez de Toca y Alameda said at the launch that the Olympic Games were “the dream, but not in the short term.”
“The dream that we have often had is to see the Holy See flag among the delegations at the opening of the Olympic Games,” he said.
Howeer, in the immediate future Vatican Athletics would like to be present at smaller competitions, such as the Mediterranean Games.
CONI president Giovanni Malago praised the latest initiative at the Holy See, which already has soccer and cricket teams.
“It will be necessary to affiliate with other federations,” Malago told Vatican News. “I’m sure this will happen, today we have started a courageous and winning start-up.”
The CONI agreement allows the team to take part in national and internationally sanctioned events, and to have access to Italian national coaching and medical facilities.
Team members wearing navy track suits with the Holy See’s crossed-keys seal were present at the launch.
The youngest athlete is a 19-year-old Swiss guard and the oldest a 62-year-old professor of the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Two young Muslim asylum seekers, 20-year-old Gambian Jallow Buba and 19-year-old Senegalese Anszou Cisse, have also been registered as honorary members.
Vatican pharmacist and runner Michela Ciprietti said that she welcomed the initiative, as “sport is the means of bringing people together.”
The team’s first official event is to be the Corsa di Miguel on Jan. 20, a 10km race in Rome honoring Miguel Sanchez, an Argentine distance runner who disappeared during the country’s dictatorship.
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