Message from Consul General F. Barbaro to the athletes of the CONI Student Sports Games

In the globalised world, sport plays, or should play, a unifying role, acting as a driver of universally recognised values, expressed through physical competition and the sharing of the rules of fair play. It is worth repeating: sport has an eminent social significance and its influence goes beyond national borders, finding its highest expression in the Olympic Games, where athletes from all countries compete in an exercise that is above all a tribute to friendship between peoples. On a smaller and more limited scale, this is the framework in which the student sports games that CONI organises every year in Switzerland fit, where young athletes of Italian origin compete, who later, we hope, will be able to distinguish themselves in competitive contexts of greater scope and breadth. We must therefore congratulate the organisers of this event, who have managed to involve in the initiative not only students and young athletes, but also the representatives of the community, families, Italian associations, public and private institutions and, last but not least, the City of Zurich. All together, the aim was to give these games the character of a gathering that is above all a celebration of the community, where competition is part of a dimension that exalts the values of sportsmanship and participation. Finally, we are saying nothing new in recalling that sport shapes our societies, permeates their limbs and exalts their playful inclination. We therefore thank CONI and its leaders for this beautiful occasion, which gives us all so many emotions, strengthening us in the conviction that sport is, after all, nothing other than the expression of a healthy body in a healthy mind. Francesco Barbaro Consul General of Italy in Zurich Zurich, 5 May 2015