Beatrice Vio

Beatrice Vio
Personal information
Country represented Italy
Born (1997-03-04) 4 March 1997
Venice, Italy
Weapon(s) foil
Hand left-handed
National coach(es) Simone Vanni
Club Scherma Mogliano
Head coach(es) Federica Berton, Alice Esposito
Medal record
Summer Paralympics
2016 Rio de Janeiro Foil B
2016 Rio de Janeiro Team foil

Beatrice Maria “Bebe” Vio (born 4 March 1997) is an Italian wheelchair fencer, European champion in 2014 and 2016, World champion in 2015, and Paralympic champion in 2016 in the foil B category.

Biography

Vio was born in Venice, the second of three siblings, and raised in Mogliano Veneto.[1] In her childhood she pursued three passions, which she dubs "the three S's": school (scuola in Italian), fencing (scherma), which she took up when she was five, and scouting (scoutismo).[1] In late 2008 she contracted what was first thought to be a common flu, but turned out to be severe meningitis.[2] Necrosis led to the amputation of both her legs from the knee, and both her arms from the forearms.[3]

After more than three months of intensive rehabilitation she was able to come back to sport.[4] She uses a special prosthetics to hold her foil, fencing from the shoulder.[5] Under the coaching of Federica Berton and Alice Esposito she took part in her first wheelchair fencing competition in 2010.[6] Her experience inspired her parents to found the non-profit organization Art4sport Onlus, which promotes sport for amputee young people.

The 2012 Summer Paralympics were too early in her career for her to take part, but she was chosen a torchbearer for the opening ceremony after an online campaign where more than a thousand people emailed the International Paralympic Committee to support her candidacy.[2] In the same year, at the age of 15, she joined the Italian wheelchair fencing team. In 2013, she won her first World Cup in Montreal after she defeated Olympic silver medallist Gyöngyi Dani. For this performance she was named paralympic athlete of the month by the International Paralympic Committee.[7]

In the early 2013–14 season she took a pause to focus on her studies. After her return in June she won both the individual and team competition at the European Championships.[8] At the end of the year, the Italian Paralympics Committee awarded her the distinction of “Italian Paralympic Athlete of the Year“, a title shared with Oxana Corso.[9] In 2015, she became world champion after she defeated Dani 15–4 in the final.[10] She was named an ambassador for the Milan Expo 2015[11] and she published her autobiography, Mi hanno regalato un sogno.[12]

In the 2015–16 season she received the Mangiarotti Award from the Italian Olympic Committee.[13] She won her second European title in Casale Monferrato, prevailing over Russian Irina Mishurova.[14] In July she lost in the final of the Warsaw World Cup to Russian Viktoria Boykova, which ended her streak of 11 consecutive victories in World Cup events.[15] She however qualified to the 2016 Summer Paralympics as the top-ranked fencer in her category.[16] In Rio she came out of the pool stage undefeated, winning her five pool bouts on 5–0. In the quarter-finals she defeated Poland's Marta Makowska on 15–6, then overcame defending Paralympic champion, China's Fang Yao, on 15–1. In the final she met China's Jingjing Zhou. After she took an early lead, the bout was interrupted when the tip of her opponent's foil went accidentally into her mask. After ice was applied, she went on to win 15–7, earning Paralympic gold.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 Diego Costa (12 June 2014). "Bebe Vio, che ha battuto la Vezzali cambiando la sopravvivenza in vita". La Repubblica (in Italian).
  2. 1 2 "Paralimpiadi. Bebe Vio, a Londra a furor di popolo. Niente gare, ma il futuro è suo" (in Italian). Redattore Sociale. 3 August 2012.
  3. ↑ "One year on: Wheelchair fencing star Bebe Vio". Paralympic.org. 31 August 2013.
  4. ↑ Luca Pisapia (11 June 2012). "Tirare di scherma con quattro protesi, è Beatrice Vio tedofora alle Paralimpadi". Il Fatto quotidiano (in Italian).
  5. ↑ The story of Beatrice Vio: the teenage fencing sensation at the Paralympics. The Olympic Channel.
  6. ↑ "Beatrice Vio". Paralympic.org. 31 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Beatrice Vio - Athlete of the Month May 2013". Paralympic.org. May 2013.
  8. ↑ "Scherma, agli Europei l'Italia ha il sorriso di Beatrice Vio" (in Italian). Rai News. 10 June 2014.
  9. ↑ "Beatrice Vio premiata con l'Italian Paralympic Award 2014" (in Italian). Italian Fencing Federation. 9 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Maddalena Carlino (22 September 2015). "Niente è impossibile. Bebe Vio, l’oro paralimpico del fioretto ci racconta “come fare la differenza”" (in Italian). L'Unità TV.
  11. ↑ Marina Sogliani (9 April 2015). "La campionessa di scherma Beatrice Vio sarà Ambassador di Expo Milano 2015". Il Corriere della sera (in Italian).
  12. ↑ "Beatrice "Bebe" Vio: "Mi hanno regalato un sogno"". Il Corriere dello Sport (in Italian). 14 December 2015.
  13. ↑ Silvia Galimberti (25 February 2016). "Il premio "Mangiarotti" assegnato all'imbattibile Vio". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian).
  14. ↑ Claudio Arrigoni (18 May 2016). "Non si ferma mai. Oro europeo 2016 per Bebe Vio". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian).
  15. ↑ Alessandro Gennari (11 July 2016). "Varsavia: argento per Bebe, si interrompe la striscia vicente". Pianeta Scherma (in Italian).
  16. ↑ "Federscherma - Giochi Paralimpici Rio2016 - Ecco la delegazione azzurra: sette Italiani in pedana dal 12 al 16 settembre" (in Italian). Italian Fencing Federation. 18 July 2016.
  17. ↑ "Victory for Vio in wheelchair fencing foil event". International Paralympic Committee. 14 September 2016.
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