Who is
Nicolò
Govoni
Meet the CEO and cofounder of Still I Rise, an Olympic flag bearer during the Opening Ceremony of the Milan–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Biography
Nicolò Govoni (born 1993) is a writer and human rights activist. He is the President and CEO of Still I Rise.
At the age of 20, he began his first volunteer mission at an orphanage in India, where he stayed for four years. During that time, he earned a degree in Journalism. In 2018, he moved to the Greek island of Samos and founded Still I Rise, a humanitarian organization that opens Emergency Schools and International Schools for refugee and vulnerable children. Today, the organization operates in northwest Syria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Colombia, and South Sudan, with upcoming openings planned in India and Italy.
In 2020, Nicolò was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to the education and protection of refugee children. That same year, he received the CIDU Human Rights Award from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In 2022, Still I Rise received the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice, and in 2023 it was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2026, he is selected by the International Olympic Committee and Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation as one of the Olympic flag bearers. He will take part in the Opening Ceremony of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, held on February 6, 2026, at San Siro Stadium in Milan. The ceremony is a truly global event, watched by around 2 billion people worldwide.
The story of Nicolò and Still I Rise is the subject of a documentary produced by Groenlandia in collaboration with Rai Cinema. It is also featured in several textbooks and anthologies used in primary and secondary schools.
Today, Nicolò lives in Kenya and oversees the organization’s operations across four continents. He has published several books with Rizzoli, including Bianco come Dio (2018), Se fosse tuo figlio (2019), the photo book Attraverso i nostri occhi (2020), Fortuna (2021), Ogni cambiamento è un grande cambiamento (2022), and Un Mondo Possibile (2024). In 2023, he also published Altrove with Still I Rise – Edizioni.
