Beatrice Vio
| Beatrice Vio | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Country represented | Italy |
| Born |
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 |
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.
Vio was born in Venice, the second of three siblings, and raised in Mogliano Veneto. 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). In late 2008 she contracted what was first thought to be a common flu, but turned out to be severe meningitis.Necrosis led to the amputation of both her legs from the knee, and both her arms from the forearms.
After more than three months of intensive rehabilitation she was able to come back to sport. She uses a special prosthetics to hold her foil, fencing from the shoulder. Under the coaching of Federica Berton and Alice Esposito she took part in her first wheelchair fencing competition in 2010. 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. 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.
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. 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. In 2015, she became world champion after she defeated Dani 15–4 in the final. She was named an ambassador for the Milan Expo 2015 and she published her autobiography, Mi hanno regalato un sogno.
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