They will be the first point of contact for athletes, coaches, delegations and spectators. The Rieti 2026 organising team can rely on a dedicated group of 450 volunteers ready to take the field for the European Athletics U18 Championships, which will be held at the Raul Guidobaldi Stadium from 16 to 19 July.
These impressive figures reflect the strong involvement of the city and the surrounding area: 302 volunteers are from Rieti, 134 from other Italian areas, and 14 from abroad.
It is a truly international team, with young people and athletics enthusiasts from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Peru, and Brazil.
This international presence will prove especially valuable, as several foreign volunteers will facilitate communication with visiting delegations through their language skills, creating an immediate bridge to the event’s guests. The volunteer team consists of 197 men and 253 women, highlighting the broad participation in the event.
The recruitment campaign has drawn heavily from schools and the athletics community. Around 80 volunteers are members of the Studentesca Andrea Milardi Athletics Club. At the same time, 170 are high school students, and 63 are university students, bringing the total number of young people involved through the Rieti 2026 volunteer programme to 313.
The first volunteers will begin their duties on Saturday, 11 July, assisting with the production and distribution of accreditation passes. From Monday, 13 July, volunteers arriving from outside Rieti will reach the city and be accommodated in local hotels and nearby facilities. By Tuesday, 14 July, the entire volunteer workforce will be fully operational across all areas of the event.
Volunteers will be deployed across every aspect of the organisation, from accreditation and transport services to media operations, hotels, and, at the heart of the event, the field of play. Members of the Studentesca Andrea Milardi club will play a particularly important role in ensuring the smooth running of the competitions.
Every one of these young volunteers has chosen to give their time freely, driven by enthusiasm and a desire to play an active part in a historic event for the city. Their commitment can be summed up in a single word: passion.