Paralympic Games. Beatrice Vio’s “clan”, a fighting and united family behind the amputee athlete of four

“If it seems impossible, it can be done.” This is Beatrice Vio’s mantra. At 27, the young woman is undoubtedly one of the faces of the Paris Paralympic Games, which kick off this Wednesday, August 28. The disabled fencer, a foil specialist, was also honored to be one of the last torchbearers at the opening ceremony in Concord Square. Further proof of her star status, she also attended the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 26. But if everything seems to be smiling on the athlete now, it wasn’t always like that. Her climb, strewn with pitfalls, required unwavering determination and the unwavering support of her family.

“That can’t be right.”

Born March 4, 1997 in Venice, Beatrice Maria Adelaide Marzia Vio, more commonly known as Bebe Vio, was a little girl full of energy and many interests. Among them: school, painting, scouting and fencing, which he started at the age of 5. He told an Italian magazine last June the icon that sport is moreover his “first great love”, which is convinced of “its ability to change the world through its joy and its simplicity”. Ranked fifth in the world at the age of 11 in the Apprentice category, the little girl saw her life turned upside down in November 2008 when she contracted meningitis. “I had a bad headache and when I got home from fencing, I had a big hematoma on my forehead,” Bibe Vieau explains in the documentary. Like phoenixes, the Paralympic spirit, aired on Netflix in 2020. After being transported to the hospital, he falls into a coma. The possibility of amputation of both forearms was quickly raised.

Ruggero Vio, the fencer’s father, returned to this dark day in 2017 during an interview with Italian journalist Maurizio Caverzan. “A few hours ago, Bebe was fencing. That can’t be right. We considered the doctor’s comments delusional and asked to visit someone else, to discuss with the superior.” Despite the surgery performed a few days later, Meningococcus C is still present and attacks Beatrice’s legs. He is the one who will talk to the medical staff who will tell him that his life is in danger. If there is a 1 percent chance that I will survive, let’s amputate my legs,” he decided at the age of 11. And continues. “A part of my body was trying to kill me. It was like a match, I had to fight against the disease.

“Life is beautiful”

A fight he emerged victorious after three months of hospitalization, defying all odds. Then comes the rehabilitation phase. “It’s like being born again, you have to relearn everything step by step,” the athlete explains in the documentary. “Walking, eating, brushing our teeth, everything is new because we forgot the movements.” A difficult year for a young girl. Fortunately, his parents surround him, support him and prevent him from feeling sorry for himself, even in the worst moments when he despairs. Ruggero Vio recalled one of these episodes where he no longer recognized his normally sunny daughter. “That’s enough, I want to kill myself,” he assured one day. “Okay, how are you going to do it?” He jokingly said. “I’m going to throw myself out of bed,” he replied. “You risk making yourself worse by not achieving your goal. If you want, I will take you to the window. If you jump from the second floor, you may have a chance. But stop talking stupid things and enjoy what you have because life is beautiful,” he finally ordered her.

Optimistic about his daughter, Ruggero Vio admits, however, that he sometimes gives in to despair. “It was a difficult time. My wife and I weren’t sure we’d ever smile again. The future scared us,” he admits. “We wondered what would happen to Bebe when we were no longer here. How to live without four limbs? And then, we started living day by day again, not thinking about tomorrow.”

Turn challenges into opportunities

Little by little, Beatrice regains her taste for life and the idea of ​​taking up fencing again occurs. Here again, the father does everything so that he can realize his dream. He begins by gluing his foil to the artificial hand. Then, with the help of orthopedic technicians at the Inail Prosthetic Center in Budrio, Italy, he began designing a suitable prosthesis. He eventually develops a custom part that allows Bebe to spin his foil on the arm like an extension of the latter. Equipped like this and with his family behind him, it seems like nothing can stop him from achieving his dream. The young girl trains tirelessly. “Every Monday morning, he entered the gymnasium of the prosthetics center and invited a boy to specific exercises. “I’ll beat you on Friday,” he said. And every Friday was the competition,” Ruggero said.

After two and a half months of rehabilitation, Beatrice leaves the center, leaving the physiotherapists speechless in front of such fighting ability. A trait she probably inherited from her mother, Teresa Vio, if we are to believe the latter’s reaction to her daughter’s praise. “Choosing to be comforted in your misery or to start all over again is a matter of wisdom. What other choice do we have but to accept the events? We cannot change the past,” he reminded Italian journalist Maurizio Caverzani in 2017. “There is no point in asking yourself. “Why me?” “What did I do wrong?” It is a waste of time. It is better to look to the future to turn difficulties into opportunities despite moments of despair,” he continued.

“Teamwork is our way of life”

In May 2010, less than two years after the amputation, the teenager took part in his first wheelchair fencing competition. A year later, with the support of her father, mother, as well as her brother (Niccolo) and sister (Maria Sole), Beatrice Vio joined the national paralympic fencing team. It has continued to flare up ever since. Today, he is notably a five-time European champion, a four-time world champion and a two-time Paralympic champion.

Nothing is really the same for the Beatrice clan, even if everything seems to be returning to normal. “I’m left with two unfinished bedside tables from that day,” Teresa, an antique furniture restorer, explained of the day of the 2017 outbreak before the tragedy. “We were a classic family, gathering around the table for dinner, watching movies on Sunday nights, eating pizza… But the long and repeated absences of one or the other unbalanced our foundation. We had no choice but to regularly entrust our two children, Nicolo and Maria Sole, to friends. No one teaches you how to react to situations like this. We could only count on our loved ones.’

Therefore, it is precisely to support and improve the daily lives of families going through these kinds of trials that Teresa, Ruggero and Beatrice founded the Art4Sport association together. “Teamwork is our way of life. But we are neither invincible nor abnormal. we also collapsed. However, there is a time in life to relax and react,” says Teresa.