The Constitutional Recognition of Sport in Italy: The Contribution of the History and Ethics of Sports Medicine

In a country, the Constitution represents the primary source of law, the foundation upon which all legislation is based.Its principles inspire and guide the entire legal system, ensuring rights, duties, and the proper functioning of institutions.In Italy, the Constitutional Charter, promulgated in 1948 and originally consisting of 139 articles, did not include any reference to sports activities.This absence can be attributed to historical and cultural reasons.First, sports were primarily regarded as recreational or competitive activities rather than as a fundamental right or a key sector for society and public health.In fact, the term sport itself derives from the English disport, attested as early as the fifteenth century, which in turn originates from the French desport, meaning leisure and physical enjoyment.Abbreviated to sport in the nineteenth century, the term spread in Italy during the same period, partly due to specialized newspapers such as "Eco dello Sport" (1881) and "Gazzetta dello Sport" (1894).Another possible reason for the absence of sports in the Constitution was its existing regulation through specific laws and organizations such as the Italian National Olympic Committee, which may have made an explicit constitutional mention seem redundant.Furthermore, during the Fascist regime, sports had been widely used as a tool for propaganda and militarized physical education.In drafting the new Constitution, the framers may have deliberately avoided direct references to sports to prevent any implicit legitimization of past models and objectives. 1 However, today the intrinsic value of sports practice has been fully recognized, culminating in its inclusion in the Constitution with the 2023 reform.