Bebe Vio, the third act of a symbol of the Paralympic movement
The 27-year-old Venetian, symbol of the movement, scores the hat trick in Paris. She will go hunting for yet another medal
The Italian paralympic fencing champion, Bebe Vio
Paris, August 27, 2024 – We saw it parade with a I live in everything feathers in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, last July 26, the only Italian on stage in what she emotionally defined as "the wrong ceremony". But wrong, in the life of Bebe Vio Grandis (since 2021 she has also added her mother's surname together with her brother and sister), there is very little, apart from what, ultimately, shaped her character, sport and spirit. What, for example, saw her comment on her presence that day with a memorable "if I think about it I still get very emotional, and it makes me feel goosebumps, even on the prosthetics!”.
A decisive thrust. One of many for the 27 year old Venetian fencer, a character, as the English would say, "larger than life", actually out of the ordinary. With two golds in individual foil a Rio and Tokyo (where he was standard bearer, together with Federico Morlacchi), embellished with a bronze and a silver respectively in the team tournament.
Vio will experience its third edition of the Paralympics in Paris, and will do so from undisputed icon of the entire movement. A face with global notoriety that has become the emblem of those who, as per the recent campaign of the International Paralympic Committee, "do not participate, but compete", in the face of those who still talk about Paralympic sport in a paternalistic way, looking at the signs on the face and the amputations to define a person. But no, it's pure competitiveness, and so Vio, in his third Olympics (he couldn't participate in London 2012, but only because too young) will go in search of yet another medal on September 4th in the individual and on the 5th with her teammates.
And that it is also fierce competition, Bebe Vio also demonstrated it in Tokyo, three years ago: four months before the Paralympics, in April, an infection it put her at risk of a new amputation, even death. She told it only after the medal was won, so as not to create alibis, and also not to fuel the rhetoric. Let's think about it: when a footballer, or any other athlete, returns to the field after a long injury (and we usually talk about fractures), the style literature light comes on hero's journey. Here: imagine what would have been written about Bebe Vio. Then, naturally, it was written about anyway, in abundance, because Vio is Vio: from art4sport, the non-profit organization born from her family, to the inspiration she brings into the homes of those who see her on TV, up to that motto, "life is cool”, which is the most faithful of self-portraits.
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