Sport has always been able to offer stories of resilience thanks to athletes capable of going beyond their physical limits, especially in the Paralympic ones. If we think of a figure like this in Italy, it will immediately come to mind Bebe Vio. After a career full of exciting and immortal successes in fencing, he decided to close this chapter of his sporting and professional history to open a new one in the world of athletics.
With the foil in her hand, Bebe Vio wrote indelible pages of Paralympic fencing: she climbed to the top step of the podium in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020bronze a Paris 2024 both individually and in teams, he triumphed for 4 times in the World Championships paralympians, 5 times in the European Championships and 2 in the Italian ones.
In March he declared that his marriage with fencing had now come to an end. To the microphones of What a weather it is he had in fact explained how the effort required of his body by fencing had now become unsustainable. Paralympic fencing demands everything from the torso: explosiveness, balance, lightning-fast reaction. A type of concentrated and repeated effort that, over time, his body was no longer able to sustain at the levels required by the world’s elite.
But Bebe never gave up once in her life, and so already after the Paris 2024 Paralympics she began to try her hand at other disciplines, finding a new vocation in athletics, in particular in 100 meters. A choice that represents a total physical paradigm shift: from the movements of the torso to the thrust of the prostheses, from the explosive stasis of the platform to the management of acceleration on a track. Another sport, another body to learn.
On Friday 15 May he officially made his debut in the first inter-regional territorial test of the FISPES Society Championships and the Italian Throwing Cup 2026. Result? 100 meters traveled in 14.75 seconds and pass to participate in the Absolute detached championships. A time that is only a starting point, but which is already worth something: it is proof that the transition is not an experiment, it is a serious project.
The appointment is at Grosseto for 4 and 5 Julywhen Bebe Vio will try to write another page of sports history in the lanes of the Zecchini stadium. One runway, eight lanes, one hundred metres. Bebe Vio has never needed much space to make history, and she doesn’t seem willing to stop now.
