[3] The Stadio dei Marmi first opened in 1932, on the 10th anniversary of the March on Rome, near the Roman neighborhood Monte Mario, by the architect Enrico Del Debbio under the Fascist ruler Benito Mussolini.

[9] After its unveiling, the Stadio dei Marmi became the leading physical education training center for the Gioventù Italiana Littorio, the youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy.

[8] According to the historian Eden K. McLean, "the Mussolini Forum was designed to forge educators and political leaders united by an Italian-Fascist sensibility about the past, present, and future of the race.

"[8] The sixty towering Carrara marble athletic statues ringing the stadium were gifted by the Italian provinces and embodied the ancient cardinal Roman values: virilitas, fortitudo, disciplina, and gravitas (virility, fortitude, discipline, and dignity).

[1][10] They were designed and produced by twenty-four sculptors, who were chosen from a contest, and included artists like Nicola D'Antino, Aldo Buttini, Silvio Canevari, Carlo de Veroli, Publio Morbiducci, Eugenio Baroni, Arnolfo Bellini, Francesco Messina, and Romano Romanelli.

[10] The sculptors adhered to classical forms and elements, when they used Greek and Roman statues as models, such as Doryphoros of Polykleitos and Discobolus of Myron, which stood out against the plain white marble architecture of the stadium.

[13] Renato Ricci, chief of the Opera Nazionale Balilla (O.N.B), the Fascist youth organization, oversaw the design and sculpting process of the statues encircling the Stadio dei Marmi, aiming to ensure stylistic standardization and visual consistency between the sculptures carved by the various artists.

[1] The statues represented the most esteemed Fascist sports and were intended to evoke heroism by displaying monumental and imposing athletes in static, powerful, and valiant poses with a focus on gestures and proportions, rather than in arbitrary motion or action.

[15] Following Mussolini's reign (1922 to 1943), the Stadio dei Marmi has been continuously used for various sporting events including the 1960 Summer Olympic Games, when it hosted the field hockey tournament.

[17] Leading up to the Olympic Games, officials began debating the obvious fascist insignia, mosaics, and elements surrounding the sporting complex and how the world might respond to them.

"[23] This fondness arose in Fascist society through the emphasis that it placed on sports as a form of civic and military education, and it continues to thrive within Italian soccer culture.

[19] Therefore, she argued that the use of the Stadio dei Marmi in the 1960 Olympic Games was an example "of the way that Italy has never fully come to terms with its role in the Second World War, and the spectre of that lack of reckoning continues to haunt heritage planning.