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Greatest hits, and a few misses, from Rome 2016

Cleaning out my notebook and reflecting on a fantastic personal and professional experience of attending the Vatican’s inaugural event and bringing my older brother Christopher as my guest to select events over the week:

> SPEAKER SERIES: There were too many speakers who stood out to list, but my greatest hits were the following: Tim Shriver and Loretta Claiborne, who presented together and were very strong. Shriver spoke off the cuff and he oozes charisma and empathy. Meanwhile, the Special Olympics legend Claiborne, a recipient of ESPN’s Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, captivated attendees with her grace. “I was excluded at a very young age,” she said. “I was called everything. Dumb, stupid, retarded, and crazy.” She has competed in 26 marathons and won six gold medals including the 1991 and 1999 Special Olympics World Games half marathon. … Kenyan champion marathoner Tegla Loroupe talked about how she ran 10 miles every day from home to school and back with no shoes, while growing up in Kenya. She won the New York City Marathon at 21 and now she leads the Olympic refugee team. … I really liked the understated style of Mel Young, president of the Homeless World Cup, which he founded in 2003 and is now in 74 countries and attracts 100,000 homeless people per year. “We’ve become so immune to the homeless as a society. They have become invisible,” he said. “But as soon as they begin kicking a football, you forget they are homeless. They become fantastic ambassadors for their country, more so I say, than today’s pro athletes.” He noted that 87 percent of those who have participated in the Homeless World Cup changed their lives after participating in it.

Madkour with brother Christopher after Pope Francis opened the conference on Oct. 5 at the Vatican.
> SORRELL’S REBUKE: As a moderator, Martin Sorrell keeps panelists on their toes — unpredictable in his questions, he veers from asking questions to answering them with his own strong opinion and actively challenges audience members. When one questioner said that athletes have to make decisions in a split second while corporations are slow to act and make decisive moves, Sorrell loudly interrupted, “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! You’re wrong! Corporations make decisions very fast all the time! Next question!”

> ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS: A couple of first-time event miscues were noticeable. During the event’s opening, where you had a remarkable collaboration of influential leaders and organizations — Pope Francis/Vatican, Thomas Bach/International Olympic Committee and Ban Ki-moon/United Nations — not all delegates were given headsets. That was a major miss, as rows of influential leaders and many of the event’s planners could not understand the powerful remarks of Pope Francis. There was also no closed captioning for English on the screens during the two-hour ceremony. This surprised a number of attendees. … Some wondered why there weren’t more global athletes of stature in attendance. There was a video of Pele to close the event, but many felt that was another missed opportunity.

> HEARD AND SEEN: Attendees were treated to a private concert by pianist Lang Lang, who played a 10-song set in a stunning outdoor theater in the Vatican gardens before a gala dinner. After his performance, he immediately flew back to New York, where he was scheduled to perform the following three nights at the New York Philharmonic. … The IOC held a dinner at the Vatican Museum during the conference, as President Bach greeted guests by saying, “We are all together in a truly historic place.” With former IOC President Jacques Rogge in attendance, Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca y Alameda noted the growing relationship between the IOC and the Vatican. … International Paralympic Chair Philip Craven needled Bach, who was sitting in the front row during Craven’s remarks on inclusion, about cricket again not being among the sports in the Tokyo Games in 2020, while Bach threw his hands up in mock frustration. … During a private tour of the Sistine Chapel, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, one of the highest-ranking members of the Vatican, discussed the inner workings of a conclave and the election of Pope Francis in 2013. … Attendees were able to attend a 7:45 a.m. Mass in English at a beautiful cemetery church at the Vatican, Chiesa di Santa Maria, located beside Paul VI Audience Hall. Bishop Paul Tighe gave the Mass both mornings, and it was a nice way to start the day, attending with The Aspire Group’s Bernie Mullin and the NHL’s Omar Mitchell.

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