Now that billions of people are watching Pope Leo, they are remembering encounters with him when he wasn’t the pope. A new revelation from the pope’s former gym trainer has come up. The 26-year-old gym trainer said that he trained the pope for two years and did not know he would become the pope one day.
Valerio Masella gave an interview to an Italian newspaper. He said the pope was simply known as Robert in the gym. Seeing him on the screen was unbelievable and surreal to him.
No one will be able to put the thought down of training the future pope in the gym. The gym trainer says he kept a low profile at the gym even while visiting to train several times a week. Moreover, he wore informal clothes to the gym like any normal person would.
As written in the newspaper, Il Messaggero, the cardinal was respectful and quiet at the gym. By his calm behavior, the gym trainer thought he was a professor. His guess wasn’t that wrong, as Pope Leo was teaching during his time in Peru.
Cuando era prefecto del Dicasterio para los Obispos, el Cardenal Robert Francis Prevost solía entrenarse en este gimnasio tres veces por semana. https://t.co/h7ZwjUYUWi
— ACI Prensa (@aciprensa) May 16, 2025
He is a Chicagoan by birth who moved to Peru after being ordained. He stayed there building bridges, learning their culture and teaching. He also used to come back to the US for his pastoral duties. He has remained in the community and helped the poor throughout the years.
Masella tells how respectful the pope was towards everyone. He was never nervous or irritated, and he always seemed serene and balanced. Masella connected the dots when he saw the pope on TV and recognized him from the gym. He states that he could not believe it. With the feeling of pride, he says he “Basically trained the future pontiff! So he feels incredible about it. The way the future pope was in the gym, he thought he was just another client.
“Here in the gym, no one knew Robert was a cardinal — least of all me who trained him”
Here are the best quotes from the original interview with Pope Leo’s trainer, translated by yours truly 👇 pic.twitter.com/QDha3MHqtM
— Evan Amato (@SirEvanAmato) May 17, 2025
Coming to the pope’s fitness level, Masella says that he was exceptional for a man of his age. Moreover, he has an excellent bone mass, muscle mass and fat ratio. Even the president of the fitness club, Alessandro Tamburlani, felt joyful at the revelation. He says they all went through a mourning period when Pope Francis passed away. Now he feels the joy that the new pope is someone they already know about and have been in his holy presence at the gym.
He further said that the pope is a great example of spirituality and sports combined. He manages it well. According to the reports, Pope Leo also likes playing tennis. World’s number one tennis player, Jannik Sinner, met him and gave him a racket last week, so we know how much of a tennis enthusiast he is.
Pope Leo is the 267th American pope who might play tennis at the Vatican with a gifted racket.
