Sport is a universal language capable of bringing people together across all borders, promoting independence, growth and participation. But, to an extraordinary extent, what it does is teach each single one of us to appreciate individual value.
The Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympics have just finished and nothing could demonstrate this more clearly that an event which is about much more than just sport. It symbolises value, dignity and rights. The Paralympics have showcased the talent, determination and passion of our athletes to the country, their ability to transform limits into possibilities and inspire the whole community.
With their everyday hard work our athletes – men and women, boys and girls – have sent out a message of strength, courage, hope and trust, reminding us that sport is, above all, something in which we all show the best of ourselves, our skills, our talents, and in which we feel an active part of the community.
Partly thanks to recent disability reforms, today we are getting beyond an assistance-based vision to assert the full rights of each one of us to citizenship, the freedom to choose, work, move around, travel and live an independent life. In this context sport is, and must continue to be, a tool for cultural change and not just in large-scale events like this but, above all, in our communities which make such an effort to foster inclusion and offer important growth and participation opportunities every day. And we have the Italian Paralympic Committee, the Federations, associations and all organisations which work to ensure ‘sport for all’ and support all athletes to thank for this.
The challenge now is to strengthen universal accessibility and work towards greater and greater integration between the Olympic and Paralympic worlds. My hope is that a unified ceremony attended by both Olympic and Paralympic athletes will soon be a real possibility. And then the dream of Games for Olympic, Paralympic and intellectual and interpersonal disabilities under a single Olympic flag will come true. It’s a great challenge, but one we must win.
