'Athletics was my rebirth': First Sport Synod takes place in Rome

By Joseph Tulloch

Over the course of the last month, Rome has been host to the Synod on Synodality, which has brought together bishops, laypeople, priests and religious for a month of discussion and listening.

That synod was the inspiration for another, the first-ever “Synod of Sport”, which took place in Rome on the evening of Friday, 25th October, organised by Athletica Vaticana.

Athletes of all stripes – Olympians, Paralympians, and refugees – shared their stories and experiences in front of a packed auditorium in the Vatican’s San Calisto building.

The Synod of Sport event in Rome

Sport as ‘rebirth'

First to speak was Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy, a discus gold medallist at the recent Paralympic games in Paris.

Ganeshamoorthy, who was diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome, which causes rapid-onset muscle weakness, in 2019, said he had never been interested in sport before beginning to suffer from the disability.

“It was a sort of rebirth for me", he said.

Next to speak were Andy Diaz and Fabrizio Donato. Donato, who won bronze in triple jump at the London 2012 Olympics, took Diaz into his home several years ago after he arrived in Italy as a defector from Cuba.

Diaz had been living on the streets in Italy, and he called Donato asking for help. As well as giving him a home, Donato began to coach him. Then, this summer, Diaz won a bronze at the Olympics in Paris – 12 years to the day after Donato, who he refers to as his “father and trainer”, won his.

Sport 'saved my soul’

Perhaps the most moving testimony of the night, however, came from Mahdia Sharifi, a taekwondo practitioner from Afghanistan and member of the Olympic refugee team.

She told the crowd that she had decided to take the sport up when she was 11, after seeing a group of women training. Her father tried to dissuade her, thinking she might face discrimination for participating in a stereotypically masculine sport, but her mind was made up. Sharifi began secretly training, eventually making it onto the national team.

Then came the Taliban takeover, and Sharifi was forced to flee abroad. She spoke movingly of the trauma caused by leaving her family, friends, and teammates behind, and of the dire situation for those still in Afghanistan: Sharifi’s mother is no longer permitted to work, and her father has been forced to shut down his business after being asked to pay taxes in excess of his annual profits.

In the midst of all this, said Sharifi, she has found solace in taekwondo. “Sport is a miracle; it saved my soul.”

Mahdia Sharifi speaks to the audience