Students engage in dialogue through sport

Rome, March 19, 2026

This initiative presents itself as a space for authentic dialogue between young people and institutions—a civic laboratory where sport becomes the starting point for reflecting on participation, rights, and community, by giving a voice to younger generations, encouraging them to reinterpret the role of sport in contemporary society and to collaboratively design its future.

The project involved a group of students from Accademia Italiana in a program structured around three workshop sessions, hosted at the Palazzo delle Terme at Foro Italico. During these sessions, participants explored three key themes:

In the first meeting, students examined young people’s expectations of sport: how can it become an effective tool for inclusion, personal growth, and collective well-being? The second session focused on challenges: what barriers, limitations, and disconnections do young people perceive in their relationship with the current sports system? In the third meeting, participants worked on developing concrete proposals aimed at bridging the gap between needs and reality, shaping innovative and feasible solutions.

The group of Accademia Italiana students—Lorenzo De Simone, Giorgia Fabbriziani, Antonio Marzo, Matteo Paroletti, Federica Pinto, Lucrezia Varrone, Lidia Abazis, Antea Contino, Arianna Percipalle, Arianna Rasca, Vittoria Romaniello, Giulia Spizzichino, and Greta Vigilante—focused on the concept of judgment, a constant presence in sports performance. They reflected on how sport should be a space for well-being, growth, and connection, yet often becomes a place of pressure, exclusion, or early dropout.

According to the students, it is necessary to take a step back and view sport as a service to the individual: those who practice sport are not just athletes, but citizens—people with stories, bodies, and emotions. Likewise, those who teach sport are not only technicians, but educators and role models.

Their proposed intervention is structured around three main pillars: Institutional communication, with a clear and shared message: sport means health, inclusion, and well-being. Training for coaches, integrating traditional preparation with modules on emotional relationships, managing judgment, inclusivity, and cultural differences. Monitoring and feedback, giving athletes a voice by creating tools to collect feedback and assess the real quality of the services provided.

The program generated concrete proposals that were presented during the final event to relevant institutions, including the Municipality of Rome Capital, a key actor in the development of youth and sports policies at the local level.

Congratulations to our students, who distinguished themselves in a context beyond the academic environment, confidently expressing their ideas and perspectives. As they stated:

“If we want sport that endures over time—one that generates health, inclusion, and social cohesion—we must begin to measure quality, not just results. Judgment in sport can hurt, but it can also educate. It depends on how we build it.”