Olympic champion shocked by mourning (Newsby.it)
“He was a warrior”: Olympic champion distraught with mourning, live tears. Died at the age of 32, he became his little angel
It only took him a few minutes to enter the history of Italian sport. At the Rio 2016 Olympics Fabio Basile had arrived after the bronze in the European Judo Championships in the 66 kg and by beating the Korean phenomenon An Ba-ul he conquered the first Italian medal and the 200th gold medal in the history of the Games.
Six years later, the 28-year-old from Turin is still there on the tatami with the same desire to fight to recover what the Tokyo 2020 Olympics denied him. At his side, however, there is one more, special ally. IT IS brother Michael, who died tragically and suddenly a year ago.
Together with him, who was older, he had begun training in the Akiyama gym in Settimo Torinese. She dreamed big with him, but fate was different. Fabio crowned the Olympics and was also a protagonist on the Dancing with the Stars track paired with Anastasia Kuzmina, with whom he also had a story (they had finished second). Then he also participated in Big Brother Vip 6, eliminated after a month and a half. But today he thinks only of sport, in memory of his brother.
Olympic champion overwhelmed by mourning, the sweet memory of his brother who died at the age of 32
A drama that he told for the first time in the studies of Verissimo moving the public but above all Silvia Toffanin who was unable to hold back the tears. Michael passed away aged just 32 and the family still doesn’t have an explanation.
“Actually we still don’t know what happened, it’s been a year. I think her heart stopped. He was tired, I don’t know how to explain it to you. When I know I will breathe a sigh of relief. But now I want to take those eyes to the top step of the podium in a judo competition. I promised and I will, I am sure he will be proud of me and celebrate ”.
And he said that when the sad news came to him, he was preparing for an important race. His first temptation was to drink, to forget the pain. But then he felt something that enlivened him from within and invited him not to give up. A little angel who told him to get down on the tatami and so he did even though he admits it wasn’t easy.
Fabio Basile fights in the memory of Michael who, like him, practiced judo, now has one more reason to win
Since then his motto has become ‘he who stops is lost’ and he wants to go back to winning something important for Michael too. Because the same career that he has made could also have belonged to his brother.
Then a serious injury that forced him to stop practicing judo changed his life forever. Basile admits that she has begun to attend the wrong circle and he had also warned her to let it go, to think of beautiful things. “He was a warrior, he won many battles in his life,” he admits.
In the end, however, he didn’t make it and gave up. “You can’t die so young, at 32,” Toffanin said in tears. For him it was a jolt to recover: “You have to turn pain into petrol. If there is another world, the only way to make my brother and family proud is to stand up and win my battles. In judo as in life”.
