- Italy's Scuola Futura initiative connects youth to the 2026 Olympics beyond sports.
- The program offers workshops on sports-related careers, fostering broader opportunities.
- Organizers aim for lasting impact, inspired by Utah's praised youth involvement plan.
MILAN — With the 2026 Winter Olympics just days away, much of the world's attention is focused on athletes, venues, and medals.
But across Italy, another Olympic effort has been underway for more than a year. It's centered not on competition, but on the country's kids.
In Cortina d'Ampezzo, one of the mountain towns hosting events for the Milan-Cortina Games, that effort appeared in an unexpected place — a small camper-van-style exhibit set up near a centuries-old church.
"It doesn't look like an Olympic venue," said Khadija Taufiq with Scuola Futura. "But we're trying to do something to … make students and the youth realize that they're part of something bigger."
That "something bigger" is the Olympics.
Scuola Futura is a nationwide initiative supported by Italy's Ministry of Education, designed to connect young people to the Games beyond athletic competition.
The program brings students from across the country together for workshops focused on the many careers that exist around sports: from data analytics and sports medicine to education, arts and culture centered around sports.
"The principal goal is to bring students closer to sports," said 17-year-old Geovanne Lugavetale, who was working at the exhibit in Cortina.
Over the past year, Scuola Futura's exhibitions and events have been popping up throughout Italy, using the excitement around the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics as a starting point for broader conversations about opportunity and possibility.
"The hype is always there for an Olympics," said Taufiq. "I mean, it's a whole other experience to have it so close to us."
In Milan and Cortina, as well as other Italian cities large and small, students from across Italy gathered to collaborate, learn from Olympic educators, and experience what it means to be part of a global event in their own backyard.
"I think that is a good project because in my opinion, sport is very important on the human's life," said Lugavetale.
Organizers say the goal is for young people to see the Olympics not just as something they watch on television, but as something they can connect with personally, regardless of their career path.
"There is definitely that ambition and that aspiration. That excitement of being part of the Olympics and what it represents," said Taufiq.
As Italy prepares to welcome the world to the Winter Games, programs like Scuola Futura focus on what happens long after the Closing Ceremony.
Everyone knows the Olympics will come and go. Same for the Paralympics.
But if this effort succeeds, it will leave an impact and a legacy that the next generation will carry forward. It's a plan similar to the Utah 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Committee's plan for youth in Utah.
The plan to involve youth was praised by the International Olympic Committee when it awarded Utah the 2034 Olympic bid.
