Wow Vatican Athletic Team Participates in the World Cycling Championships and Raises Funds for Charity!

The Vatican's Athletic Team participated in the World Cycling Championship in the Scotland's Glasgow.
On 25 September 2022, for the first time in international sports history, an athlete representing the Vatican City State officially participated in a World Championship.
This year, Vatican Cycling - which, as part of Athletica Vaticana, has been recognized by the International Cycling Union since September 2021 - took part again in Glasgow for the World Cycling Championships.

The athlete was Rien Schuurhuis, husband of Chiara Porro, the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, who competed on Sunday in the élite test, the most important of the thirteen scheduled races.
The Vatican team also competed in the 160-kilometer Gran Fondo with Rino Alberto Bellapadrona, who grew up in the Villa Pontificia in Castel Gandolfo; and Marcus Bergmann, Austria's Ambassador to the Holy See.

The delegation sought to bear witness to the authentic values that are part of the history of cycling, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable people and on social inclusion initiatives.

Among them, Mr. Schurrhuis mentioned how the bicycle that he rode with during the World Championships, which was donated by the Pinarello company, "will be auctioned, and the proceeds will be entirely donated to the Santa Marta Pediatric Dispensary, which, in the Vatican, assists 500 poor families with young children."

Some of these minors, who live in poverty and arrived with their parents in Italy on migration routes, learned to pedal right in the Vatican. On 8 July, in front of the Paul VI Hall, Athletica Vaticana put them on bikes for the first time.

In 2022 the Vatican delegation in Australia met with the Aboriginal community and embraced some survivors of the tragedy of being forcibly taken away from their families.
Edited from Vatican News - Image Facebook page of Athletica Vaticana