THOMAS BACH

President of the International Olympic Committee

Thomas Bach was born on 29 December 1953 in Würzburg, Germany. He completed his studies in law at the University of Würzburg. Mr Bach started his own law firm in 1982. From 1985 until 1987 he was Director for Promotion at adidas.

Married and a lawyer by profession, he has had a successful career in sports both on and off the field of play. He became an Olympic champion when he won a gold medal in fencing (team foil) at the Games of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal in 1976. He also won two consecutive gold medals at the World Championships in the same event in 1976 and 1977. In 2006, he was named as the founding President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). He was also involved in the organization of the FIFA 2006 World CupTM and the 2011 FIFA Women’s World CupTM in Germany.

Thomas Bach was an athletes’ representative at the XI Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden (1981) and a founding member of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission. He became an IOC member in 1991, was elected as a member of the IOC Executive Board in 1996 and served as an IOC Vice-President for more than 10 years. He has also chaired several IOC Commissions as well as the appeals division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). On 10 September 2013 in Buenos Aires, Thomas Bach was elected as the ninth President of the IOC. He was re-elected for a second four-year term on 10 March 2021 in Lausanne.

VERENA BENTELE

Paralympic champion, Vicepresident of the German Olympic Committee

Verena Bentele, is a blind German Paralympic biathlete and cross-country skier. She studied at the Carl-Strehl Schule, a special school for the blind and partially sighted in Marburg, Germany. She won her first Paralympic medals (one gold, two silver, one bronze) at the 1998 Winter Paralympics, followed by four gold medals at the 2002 Winter Paralympics, as well as two gold and one bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Paralympics. She was also winner of the Combined World Cup in Biathlon and Cross-Country in 2006.

During the 2009 German blind cross country championship, Bentele had a serious accident. Her sighted guide failed to give proper directions, so she fell down a slope in a dry river bed. She tore a cruciate ligament in her knee, and suffered finger and liver injuries, and damaged one kidney so badly that it had to be removed. Despite this, only a year later, Bentele had her best Olympic result, winning five gold medals at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics.

As a result of her performance at the Games, Bentele was named Best Female at the Paralympic Sport Awards. Bentele has won the “Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability” award in 2011. Late in 2011, she announced her retirement at the age of 29. In 2014 Bentele was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame. Bentele was nominated by the Social Democratic Party to be a delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010, 2012 and 2017.

CLAUDIO DE VIVO

Italian Paralympic Champion

Claudio de Vivo is a paralympic athlete, born in Somma Vesuviana, Naples in 1980. He was 29 years old when he was hit by a truck at the construction site where he used to work. The injury caused him to have his left leg amputated. From that moment the road was uphill, because after the accident Claudio had come to weigh 130 kg. Then, in 2012, after many sacrifices and a proper diet, he got his first running prosthesis. He began competing in 2015 and is now the national record holder in the 1500 meters, and has won numerous national championships in his category, T64 in different distances: 100 meters, 800 meters, 1000 meters, and 1500 meters. Since 2018 he is a member of Scholas Occurrentes, and also serves as a testimonial of INAIL Campania from 2017 to the present. He has been awarded as Excellence Campania in paralympic sport in 2019.

LINDA DEL RIO

Sport Consultant. Vice-president of the Jack del Rio Foundation

Linda has been involved in sports all her life − as an athlete herself, a professional dancer, owner and manager of her own dance studio, she has always understood the female heart, its vulnerability and the power a woman brings to sport. With over 35 years in professional sports, first as the wife of a National Football League (NFL) player and now coach for nine different teams, she has been a tireless advocate for addressing the needs of the wives, significant others, partners, and children of players and coaches who often face the disruption of many re-locations.

Linda was also a natural fit working as a sport consultant mentoring University students in sports ministry to help unify and bridge the gap between coaches, administration and athletes. She has participated and organized many philanthropic events globally, to provide resources to the poorest, underserved and under-resourced youth. From its inception, Linda has been involved with Vatican Sports and its global vision.

Linda presently is a freelance professional Photographer of several genres. She continues to make her mark today for women and girls focusing on their full dignity and power within.

EMMANUEL GOBILLARD

Bishop Delegate for Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Between 1994 and 1998 he was part of the chaplaincy team at the Spallazani Hospital, which specializes in the terminal stages of infectious diseases. In 1996 he completed his postgraduate studies at the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Pontifical Lateran University. He was ordained a priest on June 28, 1997 for the diocese of Puy-en-Velay. He completed his studies in Rome the following year, obtaining a canonical license in moral theology.

In September 1998, back in Le Puy, he was appointed diocesan head of public education chaplaincies and youth ministry and is himself chaplain to two middle schools and six high schools. In 2011, he left for a sabbatical year in Madagascar where he worked in a home for handicapped youth and taught at the seminary of Fianarantsoa. It was during this year that he wrote the letters that in 2016 will be collected and published under the title “Diary of Tanjomoha”, letters among which is a letter widely distributed via social networks on the difficulties of celibacy of priests.

On June 16, 2016, he was appointed by Pope Francis as titular bishop of Carpentras and auxiliary bishop of Lyon. He was consecrated the following September 11 by Cardinal Barbarin, assisted by Luc Crepy and Jean-Philippe Nault. As auxiliary bishop in Lyon, he was immediately named vicar general of the diocese and responsible for the catechesis and catechumenate service.

CATERINA GOZZOLI

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Professor of Psychology of Work and Organizations at the Faculty of Psychology, Caterina Gozzoli is Scientific Coordinator of Cattolica per lo Sport, Director of ASAG (Alta Scuola di Psicologia Agostino Gemelli), Scientific Director of the Psychology, Sport and Society Unit, of the Second Level Master’s Degree in Sport and Psychosocial Intervention, and Scientific Responsible for several projects on Sport.

Vice President of AIPAF Association (International Association of Applied Psychology in Football) and member of GRIES (Sport and Society Research Group of Blanquerna University of Barcelona). Main areas and themes of research and intervention include training and role consulting dedicated to professionalism in the world of Sport, with special attention to managers and coaches; development of Sport as a tool for social inclusion, with special attention to the evaluation of the effectiveness of inclusive projects; and consulting to professional Clubs to support the quality of services.

FILIPPO GRANDI

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Filippo Grandi became the 11th United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on 1 January 2016.

As High Commissioner, he heads one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations. UNHCR has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize. Its 18,000-strong workforce spans 135 countries providing protection and assistance to over 100 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced people as well as stateless people. Some 90 per cent of UNHCR staff work in the field, often in difficult and dangerous duty stations. The organization’s needs-based budget for 2022 is US$10.7 billion.

Before being elected High Commissioner, Grandi had been engaged in international cooperation for over 30 years, focusing on refugee and humanitarian work. He served as Commissioner-General of the UN Agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, from 2010 to 2014, after having been the organization’s Deputy Commissioner-General since 2005. Prior to that, Grandi served as Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Afghanistan, following a long career first with NGOs and later with UNHCR in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and at the organization’s Geneva headquarters.

Grandi was born in Milan in 1957. He holds a degree in modern history from the State University in Milan, a BA in Philosophy from the Gregorian University in Rome, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Coventry.

ALOYSIUS JOHN

Secretary General of Caritas International

Aloysius John currently works for Caritas Internationalis in Rome. He teaches at various universities (Paris XII, Andrews University, ESIEE Paris, Faculty of Theology in Olomouc, Czech Republic, and Oxford) on issues of Humanitarianism, Organizational Development, Risk Analysis and Management, Quality Management, Interculturality, Emergency Management and Disaster Risk Reduction. After studying mathematics, education and psychology at the University of Madras in India, Aloysius John pursued studies in Social Sciences at the École Normale Sociale de Paris, in Sociology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales de Paris and in Human Resources Management at Paris XII. More recently, he has specialized in Organizational Development consulting. For more than 30 years, Aloysius John has been working in humanitarian action. From 1996 to 2010, he was in charge of the Asia and Middle East-North Africa Department and Tsunami operations (2005-2010) at Secours Catholique in Paris. He is the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis in Rome.

TEGLA LOROUPE

World Half-Marathon Champion

Tegla Chepkite Loroupe, born in Kutomwony, Kenya is a world champion long-distance runner and global spokeswoman for peace, women’s rights and education. Ms Loroupe holds the world records for 25 and 30 kilometres, and previously held the world marathon record. She was the first African woman to hold the marathon world record, which she held from April 19th, 1998 until September 30th, 2001. She is a three-time World Half-Marathon champion. Ms Loroupe was also the first African woman to win the New York City Marathon, which she has won twice. She has also won marathons in London, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Berlin and Rome.

In 2003, Ms Loroupe created an annual series of Peace Marathons sponsored by the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation “Peace Through Sports” and has established a school (Tegla Loroupe Peace Academy) and orphanage for children from the region in Kapenguria, a high-mountain town in north-west Kenya.

In 2006, she was named a United Nations Ambassador of Sport by Secretary General Kofi Annan. She is an International Sports Ambassador for the IAAF, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and for UNICEF.

In 2015 Ms Loroupe became an Ambassador for the Homeless World Cup. In 2016, she was the Chef de Mission, organizing the Refugee Team for the 2016 Summer Olympics. At those games Ms Loroupe was inducted into the Olympians for Life project for her work in promoting peace. In October 2016 Ms Loroupe was awarded United Nations Person of the Year.

ÂNGELA MELO

Director of Policies and Programmes, SHS Sector of UNESCO

Ms Ângela Melo is currently the Director of Policies and Programmes of the Social and Human Sciences Sector at UNESCO. She holds an LL.M. (Université des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse, France), as well as a B.A. and M.A. in Law (Universidade Eduardo Mondane, Maputo, Mozambique). Ms Melo has held a number of different positions in the Mozambican Ministry of Justice since 1980, including as Criminal Prosecutor and representative of the Attorney General for criminal matters at the Supreme Court. She was also Senior Legal Counsellor on public and private international law to Mozambique’s Minister of Justice, with special responsibility for issues related to international human rights and criminal internal law from 1991 to 2002.

From 2001 to 2007, Ms Melo was Vice-President of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR).

She entered UNESCO in March 2009 as Director of the Ethics, Youth and Sports Division in the Social and Human Sciences Sector, working with key sport and non-sport partners. Ms Melo has always been strongly involved in the various International Conferences of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport – MINEPS (the forthcoming MINEPS VII will take place in March 14-17, 2023, in Baku, Azerbaijan).

STANLEY MUTOYA

CEO of the African Union Sport Council Region V

Mr. Stanley Mutoya joined Region 5 (then SCSA Zone VI) in November 2011 and served as the general manager on a five-year contract after replacing Charles Dzimba who had retired. As a former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC), Mr. Stanley Mutoya has developed into a seasoned sports administrator with 16 years experience in sports administration. He was involved in sports administration and management within the then Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture as a physical education coordinator from 2000 to 2002. Thereafter, he joined the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) as a provincial sports coordinator in Mashonaland Central province from 2002 to 2004 before joining the Grain Marketing Board as a sports and recreation officer from 2004 to 2006. Mr. Stanley Mutoya later joined ZOC as manager: operations and business development where he steadily rose to general manager and ultimately CEO, a position he held up to 2011 when he moved to join the SCSA Zone VI in November 2011 as general manager.

ANDREW PARSONS

President of the International Paralympic Committee

Andrew Parsons is a server of the Paralympic Movement and the athletes. He has been working in the Movement since 1997, starting as an intern at the Brazil Paralympic Committee and subsequently rising through the ranks to serve as President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee from 2009-2017 as well as President of the Americas Paralympic Committee from 2005-2009. He was elected the IPC President in 2017 and was re-elected for a second-term end of last year. Under his leadership, we saw two incredible Games in Tokyo and Beijing, delivered during challenging COVID times, and the launch of #WeThe15, a campaign to transform the lives of the world’s 1.2 billion persons with disabilities who represent 15% of the global population.

STEFANIE REID

World Champion Paralympic Athlete

Stef Reid is a British Paralympic long jumper and sprinter. She is a World Champion, four-time Paralympian, triple Paralympic medallist, and five-time world record holder. Stef has a degree in biochemistry, and her adventures off the track include acting, modelling, and serving as Vice President for The Leprosy Mission UK and British Athletics. Recently, Stef competed in the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics and starred in the British reality TV show Dancing On Ice 2022, making it to the quarter finals and showing the world you can learn to skate with an artificial foot!

Stef was born in New Zealand to a Scottish father and English mother, grew up in Toronto, and moved to Dallas, Texas with her Canadian husband all before settling back in the UK in 2010. Stef’s talent and passion for sport were spotted early, and at 12 she was already dreaming of playing rugby on the world stage. But at 15, Stef was involved in a boating accident and suffered severe propeller lacerations. Her life was saved but her right foot was damaged beyond repair and amputated.

Stef’s focus shifted from her sports to her studies, and she graduated as valedictorian earning a full academic scholarship to Queen’s University in Canada to study biochemistry. While at Queen’s, Stef joined the university athletics team just to see how fast she could still run. Upon graduation, Stef put her plans of medical school on hold and decided to give her childhood dream of being a professional athlete one last chance!

After a glittering 18 year Paralympic career, Stef now works as a motivational speaker, broadcaster, and executive coach and is always up for a new adventure!

TIM SHRIVER

Chairman of Special Olympics

Timothy Shriver leads the Special Olympics International Board of Directors, and together with 6 million Special Olympics athletes in more than 200 countries, promotes health, education, and a more unified world through the joy of sport.

Shriver joined Special Olympics in 1996. He has been a leading educator who focuses on the social and emotional factors in learning. He co-founded and currently chairs the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the leading school reform organization in the field of social and emotional learning. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Co-Chairman of the National Commission on Social and Emotional Learning, President of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors for the WPP Group, LLC, and a co-founder of Lovin’ Scoopful Ice Cream Company.

Shriver earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University, a Master’s Degree from Catholic University, and holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Connecticut. He has produced four films, authored The New York Times bestselling book Fully Alive – Discovering What Matters Most, and has written for dozens of newspapers and magazines. Shriver and his wife, Linda Potter, reside in the Washington, D.C. area and have five adult children.

DANIELE PASQUINI

President of the John Paul II Foundation for Sport

Daniele Pasquini was born in Crema (CR) in 1976. He graduated in Mathematics at the State University of Milan in 2000, then moved to Rome to serve during the Jubilee, starting a collaboration with the Centro Sportivo Italiano (Italian Sports Centre), holding positions and becoming in 2011 its local president of Rome. He has matured his skills as a sports manager working for the Forum of Italian Oratories, the Sports Office of the CEI, and the Holy See. Since 2019 he is the president of the John Paul II Foundation for Sport.

SANTIAGO PÉREZ DE CAMINO GAISSE

Head of the Church & Sport Office

Santiago Pérez de Camino is the Head of the Church and Sport Office of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life since March 2013. Born in Spain in 1986, he holds a degree in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, specializing in International Relations. Before working for the Holy See, he worked as head of the Visa Office for World Youth Day Madrid 2011 and for more than 10 years has collaborated in many projects in youth ministry in the Archdiocese of Madrid, including training coaches and soccer players in schools and youth clubs. He has published in various informative magazines on the importance of values in sport and has been the coordinator of the publication of the first document of the Holy See on sport, entitled “Giving the best of Yourself”. Since 2017 he is also the Head of the Office for the promotion and Formation of the Laity and the Dicastery. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the John Paul II Foundation for Sport in Italy and is the Executive Director of the Summit “Sport for All. Cohesive, Accessible and Tailored to each person”. Santiago is married to Leticia and they have four children.

MELCHOR SÁNCHEZ DE TOCA

Dicastery for Culture and Education

Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca is under-secretary a.i. of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and board director of the Sport at the Service of Humanity Foundation. Born in Jaca, Spain, Msgr. Melchor is a priest of the archdiocese of Toledo, Spain, from 1993. He studied philosophy at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, then theology in Toledo and at the Gregorian University in Rome. In 2006, he completed his PhD in Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome with a thesis on the relations between faith and culture in the contemporary church; From 1999, he has worked in the service of the Holy See at the Pontifical Council for Culture as undersecretary, focusing on a number of key initiatives at the intersection between Christian faith and modern culture, including the dialogue between Faith and Science, as well as, inter-connection of Faith and Sport. In October 2016, under the Pontifical Council for Culture’s leadership, “Sport at the Service of Humanity: The First Global Conference on Faith and Sport” was held at the Vatican, successfully launching a global movement that harnesses the power of faith and sport to change the world.