“Our relationship is like a maelstrom because every athlete needs people around them to push them”, he explains. “Sometimes she believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that’s something truly amazing. ‘You can do it, you can succeed, you can, you can,’ she would say. This is something everyone needs, and I hope that everyone finds someone like her. She is my partner … for life.”
“Sport gave me a way to take action and a way out of a very dark period”, says Alessandro meaningfully*. “After my accident, I lost a lot — everything but my smile — but sport pushed me to smile more and more. Some might say today wasn’t an amazing day for me from a sporting perspective. I say it was. At 36 years old, I was competing with the best in the world, and I’m really proud of that.”*
“I’ve come full circle now“, he observes with no hint of resentment. “I started this journey years ago, not only in sports and athletics, but also in life. With what I’ve achieved in these last days at the Paris Paralympics, I feel like I’ve closed that circle. Now, I’m ready to start along a new path because my life isn’t over, and I have many things left to do.”
“I founded Bionic People with two amazing friends, Riccardo Cotilli and Chiara Bordi“, says Alessandro with no hint of boastfulness. “We realised we were happy, but that many around us weren’t. We saw sadness in the eyes of many people with disabilities, and we wanted to do something about it. My team aims to change that sadness and through my own story, I hope to show that diversity isn’t a limitation, and that it can sometimes be a strength.“
“The Stade de France is the best location I could have ever chosen, and Arianna is a very special person, so I was really happy to do this here. Having my family in the stadium — seeing my mum crying with joy and my father beaming with pride — was something that made me truly happy. It’s not just the athlete who achieves results; it’s the support of the girlfriend, the boyfriend, the family, and the team that matters.”
“All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players”, wrote William Shakespeare. Last night the world was introduced to a man of many parts. And he bowed out in style on the biggest stage of all to begin a new life with a new life partner.