Emma Paoloni
Of Francesca Marsili
There is a particular silence that precedes the release of an arrow. It is a suspended moment, where precision and concentration are needed. For Emma Paoloni, a 14-year-old from San Ginesio, blind since birth, that world is made of sounds, vibrations, tactile sensations. Suffering from Leber’s congenital Amaurosis, she never saw the yellow center of the target, but she hit it twice, taking home two silver medals at the 39th edition of the 2026 Italian Pararchery indoor championships in the Visually impaired category. “I’m very happy and very excited”Emma says, clutching her two prizes that are waiting to be hung in her bedroom. “We are proud of her,” says her mother Moira Mancini.
The young Paralympic athlete only perceives daylight. Reads in Braille. He is in his first year at the linguistic high school in Macerata, and he loves Spanish. His victories demonstrate how barriers are only in the heads of those who build them and that, in reality, the impossible does not exist. Even more so when you think that he only started archery six months ago, after his eighth grade exams.
«It all started from a Paralympic Campus in which I participated in June 2024, in Lignano Sabbiadoro – he says -. There I tried many sports and I became passionate about archery.” Upon returning she signed up with the Arcieri del Medio Chienti of Belforte. «I train once a week – he explains – twice during the preparation for the national teams».
Archery is, by definition, the sport of visual precision. Emma is the testimony that if accepted, that challenge can be won. Use the same bow as other athletes. Instead of the visual sight, however, she uses a tactile sight, a fundamental aid for blind or visually impaired archers, which allows her to position herself correctly on the shooting line and aim at the target. It is an aluminum or metal structure, it is adjusted via screws for vertical and horizontal extension, providing a physical contact point to guarantee precision and autonomy.
One meter behind her, during training and competitions, there is always Giacomo Feliziani, her companion, who provides her with information on where the arrow has ended up, so that the player himself can then adjust the position to be assumed, in complete autonomy, to aim at the center of the target.
Thinking that his success is only a victory over disability is a mistake. The story of Emma Paoloni, who won two silver medals in archery despite Leber’s congenital Amaurosis, suggests a much more powerful truth: she did not win “despite” her blindness, she won because she was able to transform her talent into a precision instrument.
Emma Paoloni hits the mark in the dark: two silvers at the Italian Championship