A strong decision, announced during his guest appearance on the television program What’s the weather like? with the usual sincerity that has always characterized his way of being in sport and in life. Bebe Vio leaves Paralympic fencing, the sport that made her one of the most loved and recognizable athletes in the world. The champion explained that the choice came about after months that were complicated from a physical point of view:
I’ve had a lot of physical problems lately. I never said it out loud: unfortunately I ended up with fencing, I can’t do it physically anymore but I tried to get busy with other sports.
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A new adventure: the track and the 100 meters
However, the end of a fencing career does not mean stopping. The platform that for years was the center of his sporting life now leaves room for a new challenge and for Bebe Vio another sporting adventure has already begun.
Now we have, and I say ‘we have’ with the team because I can only do it thanks to a group of people who are behind me at the moment. Here, we started with athletics. I think I’ll do 100.
The choice also arises from the need to lighten the physical load which in recent years had become increasingly difficult to manage. The last time the athlete took to the stage was at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, where she won two bronze medals. In recent months, however, the situation has become complicated, with worrying physical episodes that have forced her to reflect on the future.
I experienced the Paralympics with fear. I started to freeze, sometimes part of my body became paralyzed. I already have half my body and if the one that’s left stops working it’s a problem. A part of my body was paralyzed, I couldn’t understand why. At the European Championships in the locker room I tried to get up from the table and I couldn’t: my right leg couldn’t hold, my eye couldn’t see, my arm didn’t work. It happened in training too. I was shooting with fear and I promised myself I would no longer do things with the fear of doing them. It was a necessity to leave her.
Bebe, however, could not think of leaving sport completely:
Thinking of waking up without a sporting goal was killing my brain. Since I was 5 years old I have always thought about the gym, training, improving. I wouldn’t be able to live without it.
Who is Bebe Vio: a story that changed Paralympic sport
Her real name is Beatrice Maria Adelaide Marzia Vio Grandis, but to everyone she is simply Bebe Vio. Born in Venice and raised in Mogliano Veneto, she started fencing when she was just five years old. Her life changed radically in 2008, when at the age of eleven she was struck by fulminant meningitis. The infection forces doctors to amputate her legs and forearms to save her life.
After 104 days of hospitalization and a long rehabilitation, Bebe decides to return to the sport he loved. Thanks to a special prosthesis designed to support foil, she resumes training to become one of the strongest Paralympic fencers of her generation.
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The victories and an extraordinary career
Bebe Vio’s sporting career has been an impressive sequence of successes. His palmarès includes two Paralympic gold medals, won in individual foil at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Added to these are a Paralympic silver and bronze, as well as numerous international titles. At the World Championships he won five golds and two bronzes, while at the European Championships he won five golds and one silver. Over the years she has become much more than a champion: an international symbol of resilience, inclusion and determination, capable of bringing the Paralympic movement into the spotlight.
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From the platform to the track: a new chapter
Leaving the sport that made her famous is not a surrender. For Bebe Vio is simply another starting point. The athletics track now replaces the platform, the 100 meters becomes the new goal. A completely different terrain, which will require training, adaptations and new techniques. But those who know her story know that challenges have never scared her. And when Bebe Vio decides to start again, he always does it with the same spirit: looking ahead and running towards something new.
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