Vatican Athletics (Latin: Athletica Vaticana) is a sports organization associated with Vatican City. Established as an athleticsclub of the city state, it has been described as the Vatican's first official sports federation. The athletics club is affiliated with the Italian Athletics Federation.
Vatican City is not yet eligible to compete at the Olympic Games, as that would require the affiliation of the country to the governing bodies of at least five Olympic sports.[5]
Vatican Athletics was launched on 10 January 2019 with 60 initial accredited members which includes Swiss Guards, nuns, priests, museum workers, and maintenance workers as well as two migrant Muslim Africans as honorary members.[8] Vatican Athletics is the first sports team to have legal status in the Vatican and is officially affiliated with the Italian Athletics Federation.[6]
The first podium finish of Vatican Athletics was at the Maratona di Messina, a marathon in Messina. Don Vincenzo Puccio, a Sicilian priest, won a silver medal for the team.[9]
As a national team, Vatican Athletics are aiming to participate in the Games of the Small States of Europe.[7] They attempted to make a debut in the 2019 edition, but they, along with the Faroe Islands, were barred from participating due to an absence of a national Olympic committee.[10]
In 2021, the International Cycling Union was the first Olympic sports federation to admit Vatican Athletics to their ranks.[11]
Later in 2022 Rien Schuurhuis participated in the road race for men at the UCI Cycling World Championships. Schuurhuis was the first Vatican athlete who competed in a scoring manner at an international championship.
Vatican Athletics uses a render of the Vatican coat of arms which consists of two keys and a papal tiara as its symbol. The team's uniform are in blue, yellow, and white; the latter two being colors found in the Vatican flag. The team have Italian firm Erreà as its official uniform supplier.[14]
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