Beatrice Maria Adelaide Marzia Vio lost both her forearms and lower legs due to acute meningitis when she was only twelve years old. But he didn’t stop, and this is his story.
Bebe Vio’s illness and recovery story
Bebe Vio’s nightmare begins with a shocking diagnosis in late 2008. Beatrice is an eleven-year-old girl and suddenly contracts the acute form of meningitis. Infections are terrible, causing necrosis in the arms and legs. When the baby risks his life, doctors have to amputate his limbs. He stayed in hospital for three and a half monthsHe struggles against death.
When it comes out his existence is completely different. He started rehabilitation, physiotherapy, and a year after the surgeries, he asked his father to take him to the gym and fencing. A certain skepticism surrounds her, as will often happen in the future, but eventually her family, who have supported her and will always continue to support her, are convinced and Bebe takes up the obstacle again.
Bebe Vio is more than a Paralympic champion
Everything happens at once. Two and a half years after the illness, a few months shy of his fourteenth birthday, Bebe at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, as a torch bearer. There he was introduced to Paralympic sport and absolutely fell in love with it. “When you see them,” says Bebe, “you want to know their story, why they’re in a wheelchair, why they don’t have legs anymore.”
First of all, thanks to this curiosity Turns baby experience into fuelHe manages to describe very powerfully and vividly what happened to him, how, still as a child, he found himself in a world that seemed to have eluded him forever, but which he later picked up with such strength: Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine, really.
Special prosthetics are being made so that Bebe can return to the job she loves, fencing. The international federation even changed the rules, considering that these were not allowed until Beatrice’s request. wheelchair fencers with amputated hands. In fact, although those who competed against Bebe often suffered spinal cord injuries, their arms were in perfect working order. But the Venetian girl is even stronger than that, adapts quickly to prosthetics and turns into a great champion with class.
Bebe’s palmares thus begins to win one victory after another. Won gold medal at Rio de Janeiro OlympicsHe led Italy to silverware in 2016. He also proved himself by winning the individual tournament in Tokyo in 2020, leading the Azzurre to the bronze team. Meanwhile, four consecutive victories at the World Championships in Eger, Rome, Cheongju and Terni (2015, 2017, 2019, 2023) and the European Championships in Strasbourg, Casale Monferrato, Terni. Bebe’s medal is always the same color: gold.
And now his focus is obviously on Paris, where he will host in a few months. 2024 edition of the Olympics. Bebe aims to achieve a historical result Third consecutive gold in foilAt an event where he will find the support and warmth of many friends who will finally come from Italy to support him, after South America and Asia.
Bebe Vio is beyond sports
What makes this Venetian girl’s story truly incredible is the positive energy that surrounds her. In fact, Bebe Vio has become a A symbol far beyond his sporting achievementsHe goes beyond the world of fencing and transforms himself into a character beloved by generations of Italian men and women.
With her 1.3 million followers on Instagram, her positive nature, sense of humor and the serenity with which she can explain her disability, Bebe has won the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world. Who’s that compares his prosthetics to those seen in the Robocop movie, he found a very personal way to experience his situation. “If it weren’t for the scars, if it weren’t for the scars, I wouldn’t even recognize myself anymore,” he writes in his biography published by Rizzoli. If it seems impossible, it can be done.
Baby today an international icon. Mattel created a doll in her image in 2019, L’Oréal Paris chose her as a reference for the European market in 2022, Dior signed her for the launch of some of its most magnificent bags. We should also not forget the Art4Sport association, which supports young athletes with disabilities and helps them buy expensive sports prosthetics.
Bebe Vio is an example of this, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in September 2021. stamina, stamina, responsiveness. A model to follow, not just for those who have to deal with disability, but for anyone who wants to look beyond the veil of superficiality of our time.
