Triumph and drama at the Paralympics, Caironi queen of the 100. Sabatini falls and drags down Contrafatto

Paris, September 7, 2024 – They were about to do it again, Martina Caironi, Amber Sabatini e Monica Contrafatto. They were about to redo the all-Italian podium in the final of the Women's 100m T63: Caironi won the gold in 14”16, Contraffatto took the bronze, but it is a triumph that has a bittersweet taste, because Sabatini she was catching up with the Indonesian Tiarani and would have also climbed onto the podium, if at eighty metres the reigning Tuscan champion (in lane 6) had not stumbled, also dragging Contrafatto to the ground in lane 7 and thus leaving the silver to Tiarani. A bad luck, with Sabatini who finished in Tears while Caironi was unable to fully celebrate the 70th Italian medal in Paris. Contrafatto fared better and, despite the fall, was then considered third ex aequo with the British Okoh. 

Three women, and all of Italy is there, in the Charlie's Angels trio in the final yesterday: Caironi from Bergamo (who will turn 35 on Friday), 22-year-old Sabatini from Tuscany, and Contrafatto from Sicily, born in 1981, three stories that intersected well before Tokyo, when they achieved the feat. Amber Sabatini, the youngest of the three, was – together with Luca Mazzone – the Italian flag bearer in Paris, an honour that in 2016 in Rio had been given to Martina Caironi, while Monica Counterfact, to the flag, he dedicated his life as a soldier in the Army, which cost him the amputation of his right leg due to a attempt during a mission in Afghanistan, March 24, 2012. And Caironi, after all, was the inspiration for both Sabatini – who also lost his leg in a motorcycle accident just like Martina – and for Contrafatto, who has always said that she began to think about her Paralympic career by watching Caironi on TV in London, when for her the future was just a hypothesis. But, in fact, the Paralympics – and their ever-increasing media coverage, well-deserved considering the increasingly high competitive level – also serve this purpose, to explain that yes: it can be done. It can be done, and all three of us can find ourselves in the final, three years later, celebrating the tricolor on a purple track, and staying united both when you can smile and when bitterness takes over.