A Three-Thousand-Year Journey into the Olympic Spirit

Fondazione Luigi Rovati opens a three-thousand-year gateway, inviting visitors to view the Olympic Games through the lens of time. The new exhibition, conceived in dialogue with Lausanne - where the heart of the Olympic movement beats - intertwines artifacts from the ancient world with icons of the modern Games, revealing how the same impulse toward competition, peace, and beauty has crossed the ages without ever fading. The exhibition brings together objects that rarely share the same space: Greek vases depicting footraces and wrestling, Etruscan bronzes dedicated to the gods protecting athletes, Roman sculptures celebrating the human body as a measure of harmony. Beside them, medals, certificates, torches, and sporting equipment from the Olympic Museum trace the evolution of athletic gesture - from early boxing gloves linked to Coubertin’s legacy to Usain Bolt’s famed Beijing 2008 jersey, on loan for the first time. The rarest moment is the arrival of the Tomb of the Olympics (530-520 BC), an extraordinary visual record of Etruscan athletic and equestrian contests, whose mural paintings still seem to vibrate with motion. Across five thematic sections, the exhibition unfolds a story of continuity and transformation: from ancient games reserved for a male elite to modern achievements in inclusion, culminating in gender parity at Paris 2024. It is a journey that restores the deeper meaning of the Olympic ideal - an idea of humanity that constantly reinvents itself while never abandoning its drive for excellence and peaceful coexistence. The exhibition forms part of the Cultural Olympiad of Milano Cortina 2026, reminding us that sport, before being competition, has always been a universal language capable of telling us who we are.