Paralympics, gold for Gilli and Raimondi: what a party for the Italian swimming team. Tomorrow it's Bebe Vio's turn

Rome, 3 September 2024 - Five races, five medals: Carlotta Gilli concluded her experience in Paris 2024 yesterday with the gold in the 200 medley SM13 class, and again, like in Tokyo, she always climbed onto the podium. Three years ago it was two golds, two silvers and a bronze, this time two golds, a silver and two bronzes: only in the 100 backstroke did she take a less precious metal, but these are really details for a champion destined to mark an era. At the Italnuoto, however, serial winners are not lacking, and immediately after Gilli also Stefano Raimondi took another gold, his third in this edition, going on to triumph in the 100 butterfly S10 final, a specialty in which he had been silver in Tokyo.

From athletics the silver of the eternal Assunta Legnante has arrived in the discus throw class F11: the 46-year-old athlete from Naples – always competing with her now legendary masks – is however a candidate for gold in the shot put, which will see her on the platform on Friday. In the recurve bow Elisabetta Mijno took bronze in the individual women's competition class W2. Another bronze in swimming, that of Federico Bicelli in the 100 backstroke S7: it is his second medal in Paris after the unexpected gold in the 400 freestyle. Edoardo Giordan ends the day in style (again with a bronze) in the men's sabre category A.

Meanwhile, far from the arena, it was one of the Italian athletes who hit it JK Rowling, who on X lashed out against Valentina Petrillo, 51-year-old XNUMX-meter runner, the first transgender athlete to participate in the Paralympics (on Monday she was eliminated in the semifinals of her category) and whose story has gone around the world. Rowling called her a cheat: "Why all this anger over the inspiring Petrillo? The cheating community has never had this much visibility", wrote the author of the Harry Potter saga, also known for her positions on the matter. And again: "Voted cheaters like Petrillo prove that the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! So I say, let's give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on".

Controversy aside , today is the day of Bebe Vio, an Italian Paralympic icon who will be on the platform for the first time with a double surname, Bebe Vio Grandis, who will enter the scene at 12.10 in the quarter-finals of the women's individual foil category B. The final for the gold, for those who qualify, is scheduled for 20.15.