The former Italian coach was invited by the Palestinian Olympic Committee to conduct a series of training sessions with their national team. “A playground can still be a place of courage and hope in the future”
Sport as a means of union and hope for a tormented people. Sometimes even a means to convey a message of peace. This is how Mauro Berruto, former coach of Italy with whom he won an Olympic bronze in London 2012 and now member of the Democratic Party, understands it, having accepted the invitation of the Olympic Committee and the Palestinian volleyball federation to go and conduct a training period with Palestinian athletes. “I hadn’t entered a gym for ten years. By choice, perhaps out of respect for a part of me that had closed a perfect circle – he writes in a post on Instagram -. I spent 25 years coaching, I had the honor of leading the Italian men’s national volleyball team to the Olympic bronze medal in London 2012. I didn’t think I could have anything more. Now, ten years later, it will happen again”.
“I will do it in the most symbolic and fragile place imaginable: Palestine. At the invitation of the Palestinian Olympic Committee and the Palestinian Volleyball Federation, I will have the honor of becoming the Technical Commissioner of the Palestinian men’s national volleyball team for a few days. I will conduct a series of training sessions with the national team, training courses for Palestinian coaches and athletes, and I will participate in institutional meetings dedicated to the development of sport and sports diplomacy.” Concluding: “Coaching a national team, anywhere in the world, is always a privilege. Coaching the Palestinian national team today is something greater: it is an act of faith in sport as a breath of freedom. I return to the gym, after ten years, to give back some of that gift that sport has given me throughout my life: the possibility of believing that even in the most difficult places, a playing field can still be a place of courage and hope in the future.”