More and more women at the Paralympic Games: 70 out of 141 Azzurri

Paris 2024 has begun in Tokyo and will take us who knows where. Among the iconic images of the 2021 Japanese Paralympics is that of three happy Italian athletes, who conquered the world under an endless downpour. It is the 100 metres, category T63 (that of those who have suffered monolateral transfemoral amputation), and Sabatini, Caironi and Contrafatto bring home gold, silver and bronze: a historic hat-trick. Charlie's Angels take to the track of the Stade de France with record-breaking times, dreaming of another hat-trick and Ambra Sabatini, who holds the world record (13"98), will also be flag-bearer with Luca Mazzone in the ceremony that will open the Games on Wednesday 28.

The three sprinters are part of a female squadron: of the 141 athletes in the Italian expedition to the Paralympic Games in Paris, 70 are women, guaranteeing perfect symmetry between the genders. Already three years ago, the female component had been important (63 women against 52 men), thanks to the presence of the 12 sitting volleyball players: the national team will also be competing in this edition at the Paris Nord Arena, arriving as European champions. This confirms a movement, the Italian Paralympic movement, that as a whole has moved, offered opportunities and seen the growth of athletes of international calibre. There are the female swimmers, returning with their teammates from winning the 2024 European Championships and the 2023 World Championships. Already in Tokyo Carlotta Gilli, Giulia Ghiretti, Xenia Francesca Palazzo and Monica Boggioni had lined up athletes from all over the world. And, in the stands of the Defense Arena, there will also be a special fan: Edoardo, six months old, the son of Stefano Raimondi and Giulia Terzi, who will try to repeat the gold won in Tokyo in the 100 freestyle S7.

The Italian women are present in many other sports: judo, horse riding, canoeing, weightlifting, fencing. Rosa Efomo De Marco, from Palermo, brings Italian badminton to the Games for the first time; Bebe Vio leads the women foil fencers in the hunt for team gold. The women's tennis team cl. 1-3 tries to improve on the Tokyo bronze medal, as will Elisabetta Mijno in the mixed team recurve archery. Italy is also counting on women to medal in the triathlon: Francesca Tarantello and her guide Silvia Visaggi met halfway between Padua and Turin to train and improve their feeling in the race. Anna Barbaro from Reggio Calabria and Charlotte Bonin from Aosta met thanks to a phone call from the federal president of FiTri in 2019: Charlotte, a past triathlete, was thinking about what to do after the Rio 2016 Olympics, and Anna, a violin graduate with a degree in telecommunications engineering, was looking for new paths after losing her sight to a virus at the age of 25. Their meeting has already given Italy the Tokyo silver medal in the triathlon and in Paris they are back in the game, having two new fans on their side: Francesca, 21 months, Anna's daughter, and Alizée, 17 months, Charlotte's daughter.

Lives that renew themselves, sporting careers that grow, forged by years of hard work and training. As happens to Francesca Porcellato, 53, handbike champion. For her, Paris is the twelfth Paralympics, between summer and winter editions: 'I have Seoul 1988 well in mind, we already felt important that year because we were competing for the first time in the same facilities as the able-bodied, but the media coverage was completely absent. In recent years, much has changed and our medals are those of athletes, before being heroes: I always remember that. Of course, the social aspect of our training, competitions, and international events has not disappeared, and in the next few days in Paris I will be a teammate of 22-year-old Asia Pellizzari, who was involved in a very serious accident when she was only a few months old. When she was 4, 5 years old, her parents contacted me so that I could show her how I move around the house with my wheelchair: in Paris we will wear the national team jersey, me competing with my handbike and Asia with her bow'. From the great experience of Francesca Porcellato to the debut of Giuliana Chiara Filippi, the youngest of the Italian expedition. She is 18 years old and almost can't believe what is happening to her: 'The 2023 World Championship served me to understand what planet I landed on: for me it is pure joy to represent Italy and to say with my story that disability is only one of my characteristics'. Then, there is a sweet face, a marvelled smile, 100 metres and long jump (category T64) leaving no stone unturned. Blessed youth!