Readingthe title you may be asking yourself two questions, “But wasn’t there already?” and “What does sports have to do with the Constitution?”
But let’s start with the news: last week the House approved with only two against and two abstentions the amendment to Art. 33 with the introduction of the following wording:
The Republic recognizes the educational, social and promotion of mental and physical well-being value of sporting activity.
We had discussed it here, especially pointing out the absurdity of the exclusion of sports from the Constitution, as if it were not even a right but rather, denying its very existence. The reason for the exclusion actually has a very specific historical explanation: when it came into effect in 1948, the memory of fascism was still too vivid, and sports had always been a propaganda tool used by the regime to aggregate, educate, and mold young people. The Constituent Fathers, understandably, did not want to mention it in the Founding Charter of the nascent Italian Republic.
Since that year, however, 74 years have passed and certain wounds have healed. It was time to recognize its fundamental value: not only as an expression of healthy competition and individual well-being but also as a sphere in which society is more cohesive and anyone can find ways to express themselves constructively and in freedom.
To quote Mauro Berruto, former coach of the national volleyball team, sport is Culture of Movement. It is only by recognizing it as a cultural expression that it is given the status of a foundational value of being human, on par with other expressions of progress and civilization such as the arts, labor and civil coexistence.
Scripta manent
Now, at last, it is also written into the Constitution (although a final ratification by the House and Senate is technically needed, but approval seems a foregone conclusion): sport has educational, social, and psychophysical well-being-promoting value.
This news is doubly positive because it was approved in a particularly difficult historical context precisely from the point of view of the mental and physical balance of millions of people. The mental damage caused by the pandemic–leaving aside for a moment the physical and “visible” damage–is impossible to estimate, partly because mental distress still suffers from individual difficulties in admitting it. Many are afraid of showing themselves to be weak and defective in expressing their discomfort, partly because the society in which we live only seems to reward the successful and stigmatize the unsuccessful.
In this context, sports can be and is of great help in pushing people to find inner balance and to feel part of a community that welcomes them and does not judge them. The field of sports has also been proving for years now to be the most sensitive to mental wellness issues, developing a culture of inclusion and acceptance instead of rejection and denial.
Now it is also written in the Constitution, and it is important that words have been carefully chosen, not only limited to the educational and social value of sports but also as a means of achieving mental and physical well-being.
It’s a good day.
(Main image credits: claudiodivizia on DepositPhotos.com)