(LaPresse) “Mike Tyson says: without suffering we are nothing and this thing is real, it’s not a Marzullo phrase, it’s real, because only through suffering do we discover what we have inside us. To date I can only thank having passed where I have passed, I can thank God for giving me the strength to overcome certain things and the constancy, the perseverance to believe in it when everything around me was a big no. So, for me suffering was the key that opened the door great door”. This was declared to LaPresse by Alice Bellandi, judoka, gold in the -78 kg at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where she beat Inbar Lanir in the final, answering a question on mental health, on the sidelines, in Bologna, of “Alice Golden Tour”, the initiative which, for a few weeks, has been taking her to visit the Italian federal technical centers to meet young athletes. The Italian athlete openly spoke about her fight against depression and eating disorders. Precisely on the occasion of International Mental Health Day (world mental health day) Bellandi had shared this thought on social media: “If I could fly in thought and whisper in my own ear, over the sobs of that young woman, that ‘only you you can save yourself’ I would do it and I would save her the trouble, because now pain is gold.”