Would you like to start the interview by explaining what you are involved in and what is your professional biography?
I attended classical high school. I majored in biological sciences. My approach to physical disabilities changed starting with a trip to Lourdes. Back in Varese, during a dinner I met two guys in wheelchairs who I discovered were two founding members of POLHA and two athletes who introduced me to the association. At first I just lent a hand then gradually became secretary, board member, vice president and finally president in 1993.
Personally, I have never been a sportswoman but this has not prevented me from nurturing and cultivating a strong interest in sports for the disabled; moreover, the results I have achieved have also been the result of the many yeses I have said to the requests for help that were gradually put to me.
For me this is not a job, but a passion that I have been carrying on as a volunteer for many years and which has also, coincidentally, become my life.
At the same time there have also come many awards and honors from various public bodies, sports bodies and even the title of Knight of Merit of the Republic for my volunteer work.
On the occasion of this year’s Para Olympics, I ask you: regarding physical disabilities, have you seen changes in the past two decades as cultural evolution, greater inclusion and less stigma?
The achievement of certain goals and the attainment of even striking results such as the recent ones in Paris should not suggest that the process of growth and improvement can be considered finished. If it has reached this point, it is because there has been a long and extensive work operated synergistically by many sports and competent people. POLHA has over the years had about 56 athletes participate in the Paralympics so I have been able to see and experience many changes from forty years ago to today in this area. For example, in the beginning the Para Olympics and the Olympics were held in two different places.
When I started following disability sports, the term used to define people with disabilities was “handicapped.” “Disabled” came later, and now when we refer to the world of disability sports we talk about ‘para Olympians,’ which I think is beautiful. The latter finally brings attention to being an athlete. On the media side, the journalists who report during the Paralympics are for the most part trained and knowledgeable about various disabilities; many have gone through associations like ours and through this experience have been able to find the right way to deal with disability in sports. The nice thing is that in recent years former para-Olympic athletes are also being used as reporters.
In fact, by not only stressing the difficulties but emphasizing the athletes’ abilities, they do not emerge as superheroes but only as people who make many sacrifices to train. They have also accepted disability through sports and live differently because they strive to emerge in sports. The fact that they are talked about a lot on these occasions should not remain an isolated case or acquire an emotional connotation.
For these reasons, it is necessary to continue to support sports clubs that are committed to keeping the reality of disability sports alive. Societies play a key role in promoting sports activities.
For example, if a child with a physical disability wants to start swimming and the only pools he has available are only for able-bodied people, he is forced to train together with them but in the long run for him, sports can become frustrating because he does not have the opportunity in that context to grow and improve properly. So the important cultural shift to put in place is to integrate within sports venues and sports clubs for able-bodied people activities for disabled athletes, so as to make sports for everyone, while also increasingly promoting the structural accessibility of sports facilities to people in wheelchairs.
We work for the happiness of the kids and especially for them to feel part of a family. Our priority is always given to the beginning child, to his or her start-up. Paradoxically: the moment they achieve outstanding results they may change clubs and continue to compete elsewhere, but the important thing is to have provided a good foundation and possible alternatives.
In your experience and knowledge once the Para Olympics is over, will the new values and novelties that this event brings remain in people’s minds?
I think it will remain the feeling of positivity, beauty and how one can face life serenely that these athletes conveyed in the various moments leading up to and following their competitions, as well as during the competition; one will remember their smiles, their thanks to the sports club, their coach and the team.
The athletes, on the other hand, will remember that they had the opportunity to belong to a team and that their performance was also possible because there is a reality beyond them that prepared them.
Regarding raising awareness to younger people in schools, what is your approach, what are the goals of this information campaign and what are the values you want to bring?
We need to convey not only what life is like at the Para-Olympic village but especially how you feel as a person with disabilities to accept your condition day by day with the help of sports and your peers.
In some cases it happens to see among the pupils in the classes, where we do outreach, even kids with disabilities who at first keep to the sidelines but the moment they see one of ours talking about their experience they become rekindled, curious and participate peacefully in the conversation, asking questions or expressing their opinion.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Some people, from the industry and others, would like the two events (Para Olympics and Olympics) to be merged but I disagree. You can’t keep the same number of participating athletes, and that is why the organization would eliminate among the Para Olympians the less valuable ones. In other words, the categories would not all be protected especially the most serious ones because they would choose to put the strongest together.