HEALTH 2020

Take out your frustrations on the fjords or gain a bit of perspective from an amputee champion fencer

Beatrice Maria Adelaide Marzia Vio is an Italian champion wheelchair fencer. When she was 11 years old she was affected by a severe meningitis that caused an infection which resulted in the amputation of both her legs from the knee, and both her arms from the forearms. As a child she had three passions, which she dubbed “the three S’s”: school (scuola), fencing (scherma), which she took up when she was five, and scouting (scoutismo). She is Paralympic fencing world champion, a gold medal winner and was scheduled to compete at this year’s Paralympic Games this month. The games have been postponed until next year.

What’s your sport?

Wheelchair fencing, the Paralympic version of standing fencing.

What’s your Olympic story in a nutshell?

I discovered standing fencing when I was five years old thanks to a “sliding door” situation. I was doing my first volleyball lesson but I didn’t like it and tried to leave. The “problem” was that I took the wrong door and entered the fencing gym. I met a great fencing master who asked to me if I wanted to try … after 10 minutes of fencing I fell in love with that incredible sport.

In 2008, when I was 11, I had a disease and had both legs and arms amputated. A year after my rehabilitation I tried wheelchair fencing and I liked it very much. I participated in the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016 and I won a gold medal in the individual foil and a bronze medal (that is so important for me!) in the team foil with my teammates Andreea Mogos and Loredana Trigilia.

Your greatest inspiration?

My mother. She’s the backbone of our family and she supports us every day (me, my brother Nico, my sister Sole and sometimes … also our father!). She is also the president of art4sport ONLUS, the association my parents founded in 2009 to help all the amputee children that were in the same situation as me.

Most supportive person on your road to becoming an Olympian?

All of my teams: my parents, my family, my friends, the teachers and schoolmates, the scout group, my wheelchair fencing team, my coaches and all the people that are by my side every day. If you are alone you are nobody: you always must have a team that supports you.

You should be in Tokyo for the Olympics. What have you been doing instead?

I’m taking advantage of this time to study and to take my university exams. Now, we have started to train again, luckily, because Tokyo [next year] is not so far away.

What’s your training routine?

I have a weekly programme: some days I have physical preparation in the morning and fencing (foil and saber) in the afternoon. Other days is the contrary. In total we train about eight hours per day.

How do you imagine sport in the future?

I hope that in the future there’ll be equality between Olympic and Paralympic sports. In Italy, my dream is to create a big sport committee with Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

What do you love most about sport?

I love the competition, the energy of sport and the power of the team. Sport taught me that if you train, you can overcome all obstacles … and this is fundamental also in everyday life.

What do you do to relax when you’re not training?

I study. This isn’t very relaxing but I don’t have much free time and I need to prepare for my exams. I also like to spend time with my family and friends, to prepare dinners all together and play cards.

What moment stands out for you as truly exceptional in Paralympic history?

The Paralympic Games in London 2012. This edition was a turning point for the Paralympic movement and London opened the door to this world. We’re all certain that this was the start of what will happen in Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles in the next years.

Olympians are constantly striving to be better and better as they break records. What technological developments including sportswear have enabled this to happen in your sport?

In the world of the Paralympic Games technological developments occur in the field of prosthesis and with the aids that help to move and live better. For example, without my arm prosthesis I couldn’t practise fencing. I’m the only athlete in the world that fences without the arm that keeps the weapon. My father and an Italian team of orthopaedic technicians developed my prosthesis and this has been essential for my wheelchair fencing career.