Chasing Bebe Vio, little blues grow up

Giuliana was born without her right foot due to a malformation, Alessandro lost a leg in a car accident, Sara had to amputate both lower limbs following a bad illness. Three stories of disabilities united by a meeting, the one with Bebe Vio Grandis and the Art4sport association, which inspired three potential blues at the Paralympics. The base of the three agitos grows thanks to the testimonials who convert, an art in which Bebe Vio Grandis excels. To increase the numbers of the Paralympic movement it is necessary to make known even more along the boot the enormous potential available to those who can find an opportunity for redemption in sport. The 17-year-old sprinter Giuliana Chiara Filippi (just summoned to the World Cup, she will compete in the 100 meters and long jump), the 17-year-old wheelchair basketball player Alessandro Sbuelz and the 28-year-old snowboarder Sara Baldo will be present together with others at the WEmbrace Games 2023, an event organized by Art4sport in charity purpose on 12 June at the Stadio dei Marmi in Rome. A sort of Games without frontiers to promote inclusion between people with and without disabilities and to break down physical and psychological obstacles. Telling the stories of these athletes is the best way to spread the image of a sporting niche, destined to expand within society.

Thirty by birth, attending the Technical Institute of Mezzolombardo, Giuliana Filippi began with dance, then moved on to volleyball and swimming, until her middle school physical education teacher took her to athletics. «I ran with a normal prosthesis and competed with the able-bodied. Since the results didn’t arrive, I was starting to get demoralized but luckily I discovered the Paralympic sport, first coming into contact with Fispes and then with Art4sport». In 2021 she was fourth at the Youth Paralympic European Championships in the 100m T64, while this year she set the Italian category record in both the long jump and the indoor 60m. At the end of May, at the Italian Championships in Padua, you won both titles, reaching the minimums for next summer’s Under 18 World Championships in Paris. And it is precisely in the French capital that he dreams of flying next year: “Qualifying for the Paralympics would mean experiencing an unforgettable 2024, first with the high school diploma, then with the driving license and finally with the sports event that all Paralympic sportsmen want to attend”.

The same objective also cradles the mind of Alessandro Sbuelz, a nineteen-year-old from Castelgandolfo in the fifth year of the international scientific high school and a future student of management engineering at the Milan Polytechnic. As a child he began playing basketball wearing the colors of the San Paolo Ostiense club and three years ago, while returning from training on a scooter with his father, he lost his left leg in a road accident. He didn’t lose heart, he simply changed his field, turning to Paralympic sport and embracing wheelchair basketball with the Santa Lucia Foundation team: «The rules are the same, the court is the same, the height of the basket is the same. At school I am the student representative and I participated in the organization of the Paralympic day where, in addition to my sport, we also showed fencing, sitting volleyball, blind football and table tennis». Already in the Under 22 national team, Alessandro aims to be called up to the senior national team, engaged in the season first at the European Championships in Rotterdam qualifying for Paris 2024 and then at the World Cup in Dubai. Both Giuliana and Alessandro are part of Art4sport’s Fly to Paris project, but the Milan-Cortina Winter Games are also in the sights of the association chaired by Bebe’s mother, Teresa Grandis.

In 2026 Sara Baldo would like to respond presently to the winter Paralympic appeal. She lives in Salò, in the province of Brescia, in 1995, at the age of 18 she was struck by septic meningitis which led to the bilateral amputation of the lower limbs from the knee down and to the amputation of all the phalanges of the fingers . The desperation of her first months gave way to the acceptance of the disease and at the same time to the struggle to fight it. Knowing Bebe and Veronica Yoko Plebani, Sara understood that she could take her life back into her hands also through sport. “I started snowboarding, even though I had no legs, and archery, even though I didn’t have fingers. I surf on the board with prostheses and from next winter I will start competing». Meanwhile in Rome, the surveyor aims to have fun: «June 12 will be a party with many spectacular events to mark the day. Bebe brought out a part of my character that I didn’t know». Boys and girls at first considered unlucky, but thanks to sport they have discovered a new trait of their personality.