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(in progress draft of Sport in Vatican City)

Pope Francis spinning a basketball on a pencil during a sports showcase in the Vatican

Sport in Vatican City plays an important role in the culture of the nation. It is used as a way of diplomacy with other nations, bringing the culture of the nation to international attention, and a way of advocating peace.

Historically, sport within the nation has existed since the 1st century, where a race track was built in ancient Rome which is now present day Vatican City. A few centuries later, venues across the nation were used for local sporting events, which have been attended and played by multiple popes. Following the 20th and 21st centuries, more sports organizations have been established by the nation itself and citizens of it to represent the country in local and international tournaments to widen their presence in sport.

History

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Drawing of the Circus of Nero (Pietro Santi Bartoli, 1699)
Drawing of the Cortile del Belvedere (Giovanni Antonio Dosio, 1558–1561)

Vatican sporting history began in the 1st century when a chariot racing track was built in the Circus of Nero, also known as the Circus of Caligula, in what was then ancient Rome.[1] The circus itself was constructed on Vatican hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, was completed in the reign of Emperor Caligula.[2] The circus lasted until between 318 and 322 when Emperor Constantine I ordered construction on the site to be replaced with the Old St. Peter's Basilica.[3]

In the 16th century, the very first game of calcio fiorentino, a predecessor to association football and rugby, was organized by the Papal States and held in the nation on 7 January 1521, in the Cortile del Belvedere, located in the Apostolic Palace. The first match itself was notably attended and organized by Pope Leo X,[4] other matches were attended and played by popes Leo XI, Clement VII and Urban VIII.[5]

Use

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Multi-sport events

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Olympic Games

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As of May 2024, the Vatican City is not a member of the International Olympic Committee and is therefore not able to send a team to the Olympic Games,[6] though it has made bids to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.[7] To form a National Olympic Committee, the nation's sport federations must conduct sporting activities within the nation and internationally. It also must be affiliated with at least five international federations that govern sports included in the programme of the Games.[8] As of May 2024, two of the nation's sport federations have been affiliated with governing bodies of sports, namely Vatican Cycling with the Union Cycliste Internationale[9] and Vatican Taekwondo with World Taekwondo.[10] The unofficial National Olympic Committee of the state is Vatican Athletics as it houses majority of the nation's sport organizations.[11]

"With five or six of these sporting realities, we could form a National Olympic Committee. And be able to parade, one day, at the Olympic Games. We don’t want to fight for medals. Our Olympic Committee would be above all symbolic.

Melchor Sánchez de Toca Alameda, Vatican plans to form National Olympic Committee and march at Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony[7]

Prior to the designation of Paris as the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics, the city of Rome expressed its intent to host the Games in 2014.[12] Due to the Vatican's location within the city, Pope Francis sent support for the events of archery and football to be held in the nation, specifically at the Gardens of Vatican City and the Palace of Castel Gandolfo.[13] In September 2016, the city withdrew its bid as the host of the Games, leaving it to the city of Paris.[14]

As part of planning to join the Olympic Games, delegations from the nation headed by the head of the nation's sports department in the culture ministry, Melchor Sánchez de Toca Alameda [es], were present at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as observers.[7][15] Pope Francis has also met with IOC President Thomas Bach multiple times for talks to let the nation take part in the Olympic Games opening ceremonies.[7]

Vatican City highlighted in blue alongside members of the Games of the Small States of Europe, with the Faroe Islands highlighted in green as a prospective member

Mediterranean Games

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Main article: Vatican City at the Mediterranean Games

The Vatican supplied two athletes to symbolically compete for the nation at the 2022 Mediterranean Games, held in Oran, Algeria, in a "non-scoring" manner. The decision was approved by the local organizers of the Games and Davide Tizzano, the president of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games. Runners Sara Carnicelli and Simone Adamoli were part of the delegation to be the first ever participants from Vatican City to compete in a multi-sport event.[16] Eventually, Carnicelli competed in the women's half marathon, unofficially placing ninth with a time of 1:17:21,[17] and became the first ever athlete for the nation to compete in a multi-sport event following Adamoli's withdrawal from his event.[16]

Games of the Small States of Europe

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A delegation from Vatican City was present at the 2019 edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe in Budva, Montenegro, but was only allowed to observe[18] as they were barred from competing due to the absence of a National Olympic Committee alongside the Faroe Islands.[19] They were then set to compete at the 2021 Games of the Small States of Europe held in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, through a partnership with the Italian Olympic Committee signed in 2018,[20] but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to avoid scheduling conflicts with the 2020 Summer Olympics, which were rescheduled to be held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.[21]

Team sports

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Albert II, Prince of Monaco greeting the men's football team in June 2013

Football

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Main article: Vatican City national football team

The Vatican City is not a member of FIFA;[22] however, representative men's and women's national football teams exist and play friendly matches and in unofficial tournaments.[23] All of the Vatican's football activities are held at Campo Pio XI.[24]

The men's team first unofficial match was against Austrian journalists in 1985 which ended in a score of 3–0 in favor of the former,[25] while the first official match was against San Marino, which ended in a draw.[26] While the women's team first match was against AS Roma, losing to a score of 0–10. The women's team also stirred controversy after one of their matches were abandoned in Simmering, Vienna, on 22 June 2019 as part of the club's twentieth anniversary, after opposing players from FC Mariahilf and bystanders protested about the Catholic Church's stance on abortion and homosexuality during the playing of Vatican City's national anthem.[27]

A local football league, the Vatican City Championship (Italian: Campionato della Città del Vaticano), was founded in 1972 and is made up of teams representing employees of the different administrative departments in the Vatican.[28] The league went through many name changes first being called the Coppa Vaticano at its inception, then being renamed the Coppa Amiciza in 1947, and the Campionato della Citta Vaticano in 1981,[29] by Sergio Valci who was former president of the FA and a Vatican healthcare employee until his death in 2012.[28]

Other tournaments held in the nation include the secondary cup Coppa Sergio Valci,[30] which was first named the Coppa ACDV in 1985 then renamed in 1994,[29] and the Vatican Suppercoppa, which started in 2005 and sees the winner of the Vatican City Championship face the Coppa Sergio Valci winners.[30]

Cricket

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The Vatican City is not a member of the International Cricket Council;[31] however, a representative national men's cricket team was formed in 2013.[32]

Individual sports

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Pope Francis and president of World Taekwondo Choue Chung-won, among others, with the World Taekwondo Demonstration Team

Athletics

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Vatican Athletics is the governing body for athletics in the Vatican City.[33]

Cycling

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Vatican Cycling became member of the International Cycling Union in September 2021.[9] In 2022, Rien Schuurhuis participated at the UCI Road World Championships representing Vatican City. Schuurhuis became the first Vatican to participate at a World Championship in any sport. He competed in the Elite Men's Road Race but he did not finish the race.

Taekwondo

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Vatican Taekwondo became a member of World Taekwondo in November 2021.[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Esparza, Daniel (22 June 2023). "Did you know the Vatican was once a chariot-race arena?". Aleteia. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  2. ^ Townend, Gavin (April 1958). "The Circus of Nero and the Vatican Excavations". American Journal of Archaeology. 62 (2): 216–218 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ Fazio, Michael; Moffett, Marian; Wodehouse, Lawrence (11 February 2008). A World History of Architecture, 2nd edition. Laurence King Publishing. p. 135. ISBN 1856695492.
  4. ^ Mattei, Giampaolo (23 August 2009). "Lo scudetto vaticano? Ai Gendarmi E per gli Svizzeri" [The Vatican scudetto? To the Gendarmes And to the Swiss] (in Italian). L'Osservatore Romano. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  5. ^ "I Calcianti celebri" [The Famous Footballers] (in Italian). Comune Di Firenze. Archived from the original on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  6. ^ "National Olympic Committees". International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 1 August 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d Rowbottom, Mike (23 December 2019). "Vatican plans to form National Olympic Committee and march at Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony". Inside The Games. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  8. ^ Pavitt, Michael (11 January 2019). "Vatican establish athletics association but several hurdles remain before potential Olympic inclusion". Inside The Games. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  9. ^ a b "Cycling in Vatican City". Union Cycliste Internationale. 7 June 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  10. ^ a b "World Taekwondo officially recognises Vatican Taekwondo as 211th member". World Taekwondo. 23 November 2021. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  11. ^ Giangravé, Claire (5 August 2021). "The Vatican's first official sporting association is enthusiastically following the Olympics". America Magazine. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  12. ^ "2024 Olympics: Italy PM Matteo Renzi confirms Rome bid". BBC. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  13. ^ Squires, Nick (17 December 2014). "Pope Francis 'wants Vatican City to help host Olympics'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  14. ^ "Rome 2024 Olympic bid collapses in acrimony". BBC. 21 September 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  15. ^ Cornwell, Megan (5 February 2018). "Vatican to be 'official observer' at Winter Olympics". The Tablet. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  16. ^ a b Nelson, Matt (1 July 2022). "Vatican City primed for debut at Mediterranean Games". Infobae. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  17. ^ "Results Book Athletics" (PDF). International Committee of Mediterranean Games. 3 July 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  18. ^ Barker, Philip (28 May 2023). "The Games of the Small States of Europe, an idea that has fulfilled its brief". Inside The Games. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Europe's tiniest states square off in the Olympic mini-games". The Economist. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  20. ^ "Athletica Vaticana in Montenegro for Games of Small States of Europe". ZENIT. 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  21. ^ Camilleri, Valhmor (23 April 2020). "Updated: Andorra GSSE postponed - official". Times of Malta. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  22. ^ "Member Associations". FIFA. Archived from the original on 20 February 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  23. ^ Nuti, Nicola. "Vaticano: 7 squadre per il campionato di calcio" (in Italian). News Cattoliche. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  24. ^ Montague, James (12 May 2014). "A Friendly Game for a Beatific State". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  25. ^ Ferrera, Elena. "VATICANO NEL PALLONE CON SQUADRE PAPALI" (in Italian). altrenotizie.org. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  26. ^ Nolan, Kevin (5 July 2015). "The Unlikely Marriage Between Vatican City And Football". These Football Times. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  27. ^ Borghese, Livia; Robinson, Matthew (23 June 2019). "Vatican cancels football match with Vienna over anti-abortion protests". CNN. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  28. ^ a b Argano, Fabrizia (19 May 2015). "Il Campionato in Vaticano: "Papa Francesco tifa per noi"". Corriere dello Sport (in Italian). Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  29. ^ a b "Vatican City - List of Champions". RSSSF. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  30. ^ a b Wright, Chris (27 October 2019). "Toe Poke Daily: Football in The Vatican? World's weirdest football leagues". ESPN. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  31. ^ "Europe". International Cricket Council. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  32. ^ "Vatican launches its first official cricket club". BBC News. 22 October 2013. Archived from the original on 29 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  33. ^ "Nuns on the run: Vatican launches athletics team and targets Olympics". The Guardian. 10 June 2019. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
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