ROME (AP) — The Omega gym in Rome has long been frequented by residents of the up-market Prati district, as well as priests, nuns and monsignors from the nearby Vatican City. And also, to the delight of gym staff, the man who would become pope.
Robert Prevost came to the Vatican from Peru in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world. Cardinal Prevost broke a sweat at Omega for two years until, earlier this month, he was elected Pope Leo XIV.
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Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, works at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
FILE - Pope John Paul II, left, joins other skiers in making the sign of the cross during his skiing vacation near this Northern Italian town, July 17, 1984. (AP Photo, File)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, helps his colleague Giorgio Vaccarella in his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, shares a light moment with Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, shares a light moment with Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, shares a word with Vincenzo pagano, a gym user at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, poses at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, poses at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
“When the name of the pope was announced, my phone rings and my son tells me, ’Dad, it’s Robert! Robert, our member!’” Francesco Tamburlani, the owner of the gym, said in an interview. “I heard the gym staff behind him cheering. ... This moved us, filled us with joy.”
A typical workout for someone of Prevost’s age, 69, was a mere warm-up for the little-known American cardinal, according to Valerio Masella, his personal trainer. Although it is hard to define an age group for personalized programs, Prevost's plan was more befitting of men aged 50-55. Masella would train him two or three times a week in sessions lasting up to an hour.
So, how much does the pope bench? Masella can’t speak to his papal power, since Prevost was focused on posture and cardiovascular capacity. He ran on his favorite treadmill that faces a mural featuring famous local landmarks, among them St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
“We would start off slow and then go pretty strong, I must say. Especially a lot of resistance on the exercise bike, a very strong climb,” Masella said.
Throughout their two-year training, Masella never knew Prevost was a cardinal, nor did he hear him utter a discouraging word.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make a comment about anything that wasn’t positive. He was always positive about everything -- the weather, the city, the people, also for me, he said he liked the gym.”
A Vatican spokesperson didn't reply when asked for comment.
A sporting pope isn’t new. Pope John Paul II, who was elected at the age of 58, was an avid skier and mountain trekker.
Chicago-born Prevost’s game is tennis. On May 15, he met top-ranked player Jannik Sinner, who gave him a racket and offered to play during an off day at the Italian Open. Leo had said earlier in the week that he would be up for a charity match when it was suggested by a journalist.
After Prevost took over the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops in 2023, he said in an interview with the Augustinian Order that his new job had left him little free time to practice his game. While the Mediterranean climate makes tennis possible year-round, the papacy will likely leave him even fewer chances to step onto a court.
Tamburlani, the Omega owner, says the Holy Father is welcome back any time he wants to squeeze in a workout. After all, his membership's still active.
“This would make us so happy,” he said. “We would organize our gym to guarantee his safety and his privacy. We would just need a sign.”
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, works at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
FILE - Pope John Paul II, left, joins other skiers in making the sign of the cross during his skiing vacation near this Northern Italian town, July 17, 1984. (AP Photo, File)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, helps his colleague Giorgio Vaccarella in his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, shares a light moment with Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, shares a light moment with Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, shares a word with Vincenzo pagano, a gym user at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, poses at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Personal trainer Valerio Masella, 26, who trained Robert Francis Prevost before the cardinal became Pope Leo XIV, poses at his gym near the Vatican, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, whose archrivalry with another former premier defined the country’s politics for a generation, has died, her Bangladesh Nationalist Party said in a statement Tuesday. She was 80.
Zia was the first woman elected prime minister of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's interim government announced a three-day mourning period. A general holiday also was announced for Wednesday when Zia’s funeral prayers are scheduled be held in front of the country's national Parliament building in Dhaka.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences in a statement Tuesday, noting that “as the first woman Prime Minister of Bangladesh, her important contributions toward the development of Bangladesh, as well as India-Bangladesh relations, will always be remembered.”
Sajeeb Wazed, son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said in a statement Tuesday that Zia’s demise “will leave a deep impact on the country’s (democratic) transition.”
“She will be remembered for her contributions in nation building but her death is a blow to stabilize Bangladesh,” said Wazed, whose mother was Zia’s greatest political rival.
Zia had faced corruption cases she said were politically motivated, but in January 2025 the Supreme Court acquitted Zia in the last corruption case against her, which would have let her run in February’s general election.
The BNP said that after she was released from prison due to illness in 2020, her family sought permission for treatment abroad at least 18 times from Hasina's administration, but the requests were rejected.
Following Hasina’s ouster in 2024, an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus finally allowed her to go. She went to London in January and returned to Bangladesh in May.
Bangladesh’s early years of independence, gained in a bloody 1971 war against Pakistan, were marked by assassinations, coups and countercoups as military figures and secular and Islamic leaders jockeyed for power.
Zia’s husband, President Ziaur Rahman, had grabbed power as a military chief in 1977 and a year later formed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He was credited with opening democracy in the country, but he was killed in a 1981 military coup. Zia’s uncompromising stance against the military dictatorship helped build a mass movement against it, culminating with the ousting of dictator and former army chief H.M. Ershad in 1990.
Zia’s opponent when she won her first term in 1991 and in several elections after that was Hasina, the daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in a 1975 coup.
Zia was criticized over an early 1996 election in which her party won 278 of the 300 parliamentary seats during a wide boycott by other leading parties including Hasina’s Awami League, which demanded an election-time caretaker government. Zia’s government lasted only 12 days before a nonpartisan caretaker government was installed and the new election was held that June.
Zia returned to power in 2001 in a government shared with the country’s main Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which had a dark past involving Bangladesh’s independence war.
Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party was previously closely allied with the party, and her government maintained the confidence of the business community by following pro-investment, open market policies. Zia was known to have a soft spot for Pakistan and used to deliver anti-Indian political speeches. India alleged insurgents were allowed to use Bangladesh’s soil to destabilize India’s northeastern states under Zia, especially during her term from 2001-2006.
During that term, Zia was also tainted by allegations that her elder son, Tarique Rahman, was running a parallel government and was involved in widespread corruption.
In 2004, Hasina blamed Zia’s government and Rahman for grenade attacks in Dhaka that killed 24 members of her Awami League party and wounded hundreds of people. Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, which she characterized as an assassination attempt, and subsequently won the 2008 general election.
Zia’s party and its partners boycotted the 2014 election in a dispute over a caretaker government, giving a one-sided victory to the increasingly authoritarian regime of Hasina. Her party joined the national elections in 2018 but boycotted again in 2024, allowing Hasina to return to power for a fourth consecutive time through controversial elections.
Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail in two separate corruption cases for misuse of power in embezzling funds meant for a charity named after her late husband. Her party said the charges were politically motivated to weaken the opposition, but the Hasina government said it did not interfere and the case was a matter for the courts.
Hasina was bitterly criticized by both her opponents and independent critics for sending Zia to jail.
Zia was released from jail by Hasina’s government in 2020 and was moved to a rented home, from where she regularly visited a private hospital. Her family repeatedly requested Hasina’s administration to allow Zia to travel abroad for medical treatment, but was refused.
After 15 years in power, Hasina was ousted in a mass uprising in August 2024 and fled the country. Zia was given permission to travel abroad by an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Zia was silent about politics for years and did not attend political rallies, but she remained the BNP chairperson until her death. Rahman has been the party’s acting chair since 2018.
She was last seen at an annual function of the Bangladesh military in Dhaka Cantonment on Nov. 21, when Yunus and other political leaders met her. She was in a wheelchair and appeared pale and tired.
She is survived by Rahman, her elder son and heir apparent in the political dynasty. Her younger son, Arafat, died in 2015.
A portrait of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is displayed on a digital screen near the hospital where she died, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
A woman reacts while waiting behind barricades outside the hospital where former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia died, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
FILE - Bangladesh's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia looks upwards as she attends a rally of her supporters outside their party headquarters in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, March 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File)
FILE - Khaleda Zia takes an oath of office as the prime minister in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Oct. 10, 2001. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File)
FILE - Bangladesh's former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia, center, leaves court after a hearing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 10, 2016. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Bangladesh's ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia leaves the airport in a car after arriving from London, May 6, 2025, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Mahud Hossain Opu, File)
FILE - Khaleda Zia, Bangladeshi opposition leader and former prime minister, waves at the start of a 400-kilometer protest march from Dhaka to the northern village of Dinajpur, May 16, 1999. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File)
FILE - Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia waves to supporters after she was arrested, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sept. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File)
