Run for Autism Jubileum 2025

2 April is World Autism Awareness Day, established in 2007 by the UN to raise awareness of the daily challenges faced by people with autism.

In Rome, for almost 15 years, the Progetto Filippide has been celebrating the event with a big sporting competition attended by more than 600 boys and girls with autism spectrum coming from all over Italy and from various European and non-European countries, because sport is a fundamental tool to foster the participation of people with disabilities in society and an opportunity for individual growth and relations with others, in a context of equality and mutual respect.

The 14th edition of Run For Autism Jubileum - Memorial Viridiana Rotondi, the 10-kilometre race in which more than 3,000 runners take part together with the Filippide Project children will be run on 6 April, on the occasion of the World Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

The Run For Autism is the only example in Europe where a high number of athletes with autism can take part in a sports competition with neurotypical people, an integrated race where autistic athletes run with other runners without disabilities, without any distinction of bib number or category.

After the start, set for 9.30 a.m. in Piazza Bocca della Verità, the participants will run on a five-kilometre course, to be repeated twice for those taking part in the competitive and non-competitive 10 kilometre race, which will wind its way through Rome's most famous streets: Via del Teatro di Marcello, Piazza Venezia, Via dei Fori Imperiali, Piazzale del Colosseo until the return to the Bocca della Verità, the finish line.

The event will open on 2 April, with a conference at the University of Rome's Foro Italico, which will also be attended by the Italian Minister for Sport and Youth Affairs Andrea Abodi. From 3 to 6 April, on the other hand, there will be several cultural, entertainment, and sports events, specifically the World Cup Duet Inclusive Artistic Swimming, a first for an international artistic swimming event with the exceptional participation of representatives from Russia and Taiwan and the Run for Autism Jubileum. A team from Lebanon will participate in the competition.