ROME (OSV News) -- When Pope Leo XIV met a group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes who competed in the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, the protocol rule of not wearing white next to the pontiff was not in force as the Italian Olympic team wore white head to toe as part of their official outfits.
For Daniel Grassl, the Olympic bronze medalist in the figure skating team event, meeting Pope Leo was the realization of a "really nice dream" of which he spoke to OSV News in February during the Olympic Games.
"I'm very happy, it was an honor for me to meet the pope, especially this season when I used the soundtrack of the 'Conclave' and performed as pope in a free skating program," he told OSV News after leaving the Apostolic Palace's Clementine Hall.
"It was so moving and beautiful to shake his hand," he said. To Grassl, the Church "means a lot," he said, visibly happy with the papal encounter. "I am very Catholic, so it was really an honor to meet him today."
Grassl heard before that Pope Leo saw his performance and liked it. The choice of the soundtrack, as he explained, was "very coincidental."
He was surprised, however, that the actual conclave "was that short," adding: "I was not expecting an American to be elected either."
Faith is an important part of Grassl's life, he said, pointing out that the pope's words resonated with him after the April 9 audience.
"The pope told us that when you lose, you should never lose yourself, and when you win, you should always remain humble. This was a beautiful sentence," Grassl recalled.
"No one wins alone," Pope Leo told the sports crowd, emphasizing that "behind every victory there are many people involved -- from family to teams -- as well as many days of training, pressure and solitude."
Sport, Pope Leo told Italian athletes, "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."
"During the Games we saw not only bodies in motion, but stories: stories of sacrifice, of discipline, of tenacity," the pope said. "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."
Among the athletes present for the papal audience was also "super mom" Francesca Lollobrigida, who made history in speed skating by winning two gold medals during the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics -- all after returning from maternity leave. She went viral in social media not only for her sports achievements but also for her famous TV interview as a winner, in which her toddler Tommaso stole the show.
While he impatiently fidgeted in her arms, eventually ripping off her "Italia" headband, she replied, with patience: “Wait one second, love.”
For her, meeting Pope Leo was a "truly unique and rare occasion."
For Lollobrigida, a great-grandniece of Italian cinema star Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida, faith is something very natural. She did not shy away from making the sign of the cross after winning the game.
Lollobrigida grew up in a Catholic family and was close to her parish. She married in a Catholic church, baptized her son Tommaso and always asks a priest friend to bless the house when she moves to a new place.
She tried skating when she was only 14 months old and started her career at the parish championships when she was a young child.
"The great thing was that we spent every day in the parish and on Sundays we went to Mass and had catechism class. The pastor also encouraged us to join activities like the choir, we were the first 'altar boys.' So, in the end it wasn't just about sports. It was really nice to combine my sports life with my parish life. I remember it as a very beautiful time," she told reporters at a March 17 forum organized by the Vatican.
Faith and parish community were very important also for Gianluigi Rosa, para ice hockey player who -- as a 17-year-old teenager -- lost his leg in an accident.
"I found myself starting again. I had a lot of doubts, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anger also for what had happened. But then the boys from the 'oratorio' community, who used to go out with me, convinced me to go out again, to be in contact with other people, to come back to the oratory, to the church," he told OSV News after the papal audience.
"I found a group that we could now call 'inclusive,' which despite the disability, helped me to do many things. I went to World Youth Day in Germany when I got just my first prosthesis, it was a very beautiful experience."
Among the Italian athletes present at the audience was another para ice hockey player, Italian-American Nikko Landeros, who -- after initially representing the United States -- decided to play in the Italian team to pay a tribute to his late grandfather, who was born in Milan.
"My mom's side of the family is Milanese, I have zios, zias and cugini from Milano," he said of his uncles, aunts and cousins, mixing Italian and English. "When my grandfather passed away, I wanted to do something in his spirit, so I said why not come play in Milano Cortina. I'd played and won three gold medals with the U.S. prior to that, so it was a pretty big decision, but for me it was all about heart and coming and helping the team out and being here in Italy and now I want to stay."
Meeting Pope Leo in the Vatican was for him "a super cool experience." "I've met a lot of cool people, but I think that was probably the top of my experiences," he told OSV News.
Faith for Landeros is "number one."
"I pray every day. I'm thankful to be here, if it weren't for God I wouldn't be alive, so, you know, I'm super thankful!" Landeros lost his legs in an accident when he was 17.
The Holy Father shook the hand of each of 300 athletes present. Some of the athletes brought their medals and showed them to the pope. Some did it in a way that Pope Leo thought it was a gift to him.
Giuseppe Romele, 34, Paralympic cross country skier and bronze medalist in 20 kilometers, or 12 miles, sit-skiing. Talking about presenting his medal to the pontiff, he said, "I didn't have it around my neck, so I gave it to the pope directly in my hand and he wanted to keep it."
"I said to him, sorry Holy Father, but I have to put the medal in the safe at home. This medal was blessed, unlike the other one won in Beijing in 2022, so this will surely have an added value," Romele, who suffers from bilateral femoral hypoplasia, said smiling.
He confessed that meeting Pope Leo "was an incredible experience, especially when he told me that this medal represents me a lot, and no one had told me this yet. So, for me it was a unique emotion."
Pope Leo told the Italian athletes that today, when the world is "so marked by polarization, rivalry and conflicts that escalate into devastating wars," their commitment to sports "takes on an even greater value: Sport can and must truly become a space for encounter!"
The pope said sports are "not a show of strength, but an exercise in relationship."
"I wanted to recall, on the occasion of these Games," he continued, "the value of the Olympic truce. With your presence, you have made visible this possibility of peace as a prophecy that is by no means rhetorical: breaking the logic of violence to promote that of encounter."
