VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Italian Olympic speedskating champion Francesca Lollobrigida faced backlash for bringing her energetic 2-year-old son to interviews after her gold medal wins last month. But at the Vatican on Tuesday (March 17), officials held her up as a model of motherhood and elite sport.

“Francesca’s choice is not an obvious one,” said Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, who heads the Vatican department for culture and education, during a press conference at the Vatican. “In her victory, we celebrate the victory of all men and women who say it is possible.”

Lollobrigida learned she was pregnant with her son, Tommaso, soon after winning silver and bronze medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. While many said she would not be able to return to the ice, she continued training after her pregnancy and while breastfeeding as she prepared to compete in the 2026 Olympic Games in Milano Cortina.

“I did not give up when they told me I would not win again — and instead, I won even more,” Lollobrigida said at the Vatican press conference.

On Feb. 7, her 35th birthday, Lollobrigida won gold in the 3,000-meter speedskating competition, setting a new Olympic record in the process. On Feb. 12, she won a second gold medal in the 5,000-meter race. The New York Times referred to her as “Super Mom.”

“I wasn’t afraid. I surprised myself because I won against myself,” Lollobrigida said, pointing to the challenges she faced as an athlete and as a mother to achieve her results, including sleepless nights and getting sick from the illnesses her son would bring home from daycare. “I made a decision not to give up either a family or an Olympic dream.”

But Lollobrigida received backlash online after doing interviews while holding her spirited son. At the Vatican, she said she has accepted the criticism but is determined to spread her message of being a mother-athlete — in that order. She said many mothers wrote to her to show support and share their struggles with managing motherhood and other responsibilities.

Tommaso was present at the press conference and rushed to sit on his mother’s lap, to the applause of curial officials and the cardinal. The Vatican sports team, Athletica Vaticana, gifted Lollobrigida with a shirt with the papal colors of yellow and white.

“I was smiling during the race because I was enjoying it — I was doing what I love and did not give up,” Lollobrigida said.

She said her achievements would not have been possible without the support of her team and family, which supported her through the years. “With the right support, and by being mentally strong, a woman can be a mother, a worker and an athlete,” she said.

Pope Leo XIV wrote a letter addressed to Olympic athletes ahead of the start of the Winter Olympic Games, stressing that the human element of sport and competition must remain at the center of the Olympics. He will meet with Italian Olympic athletes on April 9 at the Vatican, in an event meant to address athletes worldwide and highlight the unifying and peace-building dimension of athletics.

“Sport is truly at the service of the happiness of the human person in all his or her dimensions,” Tolentino de Mendonça said, adding, “The greatest medal is joy and hope, and feeling within oneself that one’s life has succeeded.”