The Italy Ministry of Education and Merit has introduced Olympics-themed questions into the 2026 national secondary school graduation exam (maturità), scheduled for June following the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games in February-March. This marks what athletes and educators are calling a watershed moment in how the country values athletic achievement alongside academic performance. Students at linguistic high schools across the country were asked to draft a school newspaper article analyzing sport as a vehicle for fair play, respect, teamwork, and human potential—drawing on an inaugural message from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games.
For Michela Moioli, the 30-year-old Olympic snowboard cross champion who won gold at PyeongChang 2018 (becoming the first Italian woman to win Olympic gold in snowboard cross) and silver in the mixed team event at Beijing 2022, the exam question represents a long-overdue shift. "The fact that what sport represents is being brought as a topic to the maturità is a wonderful opportunity—it symbolizes that finally school and sport are starting to go hand in hand," Moioli said. "Having the Olympics in Italy will give visibility and resonance. I believe many young people will be inspired by what the Games bring. All athletes, Italian and international, will be carriers of values that sport teaches and that students can write about in their essays."
Why This Matters
• Recognition of dual pathways: Italy's education system has historically been criticized for neglecting both baseline physical education and elite young athletes, often forcing students to choose between competitive sport and rigorous academics.
• Constitutional alignment: A 2023 amendment to the Italian Constitution formally recognized the educational, social, and psychological value of sport—this exam question translates that principle into curriculum.
• Olympics legacy in action: Over 16,000 students are expected to attend Olympic competitions through the Education Gen26 program during the February-March 2026 Games, with planning accounting for 83% participation from Northern Italy, 11% from Central regions, and 6% from the South.
The Athlete's Perspective on School and Sport
Moioli, from Bergamo, knows firsthand the friction between training schedules and classroom obligations. She and fellow Alpine skier Sofia Goggia presented Italy's successful Olympic bid in Lausanne in 2019—a pitch delivered entirely in English. "Being able to speak English fluently, and not just that, is fundamental," Moioli emphasized. "It allows you to relate to people from all over the world, open your mind, not feel excluded or marginalized. I learned it on the field, through travel and competitions. I have friends and rivals from Canada, Australia, France, and the Czech Republic. At first it was difficult to communicate, but over time it becomes natural."
Her own maturità experience in the mid-2010s left a lasting impression. "I was fairly calm. I had studied, I was prepared, but it's always a hurdle and you have to climb it," she recalled. "I was aware that the end of that journey brought with it the close of a chapter in my life. I was very happy, even if a bit melancholic about closing that circle. But it was a beautiful moment—obviously I was very emotional the night before the exams."
Moioli has accumulated major international titles throughout her career, including gold at PyeongChang 2018, silver in the mixed team event at Beijing 2022, and three World Cup overall titles (2016, 2018, 2020). These achievements underscore the demanding balance she has maintained between elite competition and continuous learning throughout her athletic career.
How Milano Cortina 2026 Is Changing Italian Schools
The Education Gen26 program, a collaboration between the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, the Ministry of Education and Merit, CONI, and the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP), is embedding Olympic values directly into Italian curricula. The initiative includes:
• Milano Cortina nelle Scuole: Educational days in middle and high schools promoting Olympic values and storytelling around the Games.
• PCTO pathways: Work-study programs for final-year high school students focusing on careers in sports management, event logistics, data analysis, sports medicine, and cultural roles tied to athletics.
• OVEP toolkit: The Olympic Values Education Programme, developed by the International Olympic Committee, distributes free teaching materials to schools nationwide, integrating themes of excellence, respect, friendship, and inclusion into civic education and sustainability coursework.
The broader "Scuola Futura" initiative, promoted by the Ministry, uses the 2026 Games as a platform to connect students with non-athletic careers in sport, organizing workshops and inter-regional collaborative projects across Italian cities.
What This Means for Student-Athletes
Italy's Progetto Studente-atleta di alto livello, renewed for the 2025/2026 academic year under Ministerial Decree n. 43 (3 March 2023), allows high-level competitive athletes to pursue Personalized Formative Pathways (PFP). These arrangements, developed in partnership with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers' Department for Sport, CONI, CIP, and Sport e Salute S.p.A., provide:
• School tutors: Each student-athlete is assigned a faculty tutor to coordinate study programs and liaise with teachers.
• Flexible scheduling: Use of distance learning tools, rescheduled exams, and individualized assignments to accommodate training and competition absences.
• Legal recognition of absences: Competitive commitments are formally acknowledged, reducing dropout risk.
The program saw 53,858 students and 2,562 schools participate in 2024/2025, with the highest concentrations in Lombardy, Lazio, and Emilia-Romagna. Despite these supports, balancing elite sport and school remains difficult—students face time constraints, frequent absences, and occasional faculty misunderstanding of athletic commitments. Experts recommend strict time management, proactive communication with teachers, and strong support networks involving family, coaches, and educators.
Specialized institutions like scientific-sports high schools and university programs at Luiss Guido Carli and Bocconi offer further tailored pathways, including scholarships and dedicated tutoring. The Unisport Italia consortium is working to formally define "elite agonists" and "non-elite agonists" at the university level, aiming to build customized degree tracks.
The Legacy Beyond Medals
"The journey to Milano Cortina represents a long path with moments of tension and difficulty," Moioli reflected on her competitive trajectory. "But then everything passes and the beautiful memories remain. When you live those moments you don't realize it, then you process them and say: I did something grand that will remain in history, also thanks to my team and my family who helped me."
Italy's constitutional amendment in July 2023, which formally recognized sport's educational and social value, has given institutional weight to what athletes like Moioli have long argued: that competitive sport and academic rigor are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. The inclusion of Olympic values in the 2026 maturità exam signals a cultural shift—one that treats athletic discipline, multilingual communication, and international teamwork as legitimate academic subjects rather than extracurricular distractions.
The Education Gen26 program aims to forge a "Generation 2026" that embodies Olympic ethics, fraternity, and physical activity as core identity markers. With post-Games initiatives like "Campioni ogni giorno" (Champions Every Day), promoted by partners including Procter & Gamble, set to extend Olympic values into primary and secondary school physical education and civic curricula, the goal is a lasting cultural and social legacy—not just economic or infrastructural.
For students sitting the June 2026 maturità, the exam question on sport will be more than an academic exercise. It will be an acknowledgment that the path Moioli and her peers have walked—balancing training commitments and textbooks, international competition and exam halls—is finally being seen, valued, and integrated into the country's vision of education.
