I have a dream (Volume 8)

Bebe Vio

• Publisher: European Investment Bank
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789286143137
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Finanzwesen

All athletes experience setbacks. But to have your limbs - the very tools you use to practice your sport - taken away by an illness at a young age is a setback that many would never overcome. Bebe Vio never gave up her dream of becoming a fencer, despite having her arms and legs amputated when she was eleven years old after suffering from fulminant meningitis. Instead of abandoning her dream of going to the Olympics, she began training for the Paralympics from a wheelchair. Her unwavering determination to win, despite her physical challenges, made her a world champion fencer. She also established her own association, art4sport, to encourage other people to pursue the beauty of life through sport. This is the eighth essay in the Big Ideas series created by the European Investment Bank. The EIB has invited international thought leaders to write about the most important issues of the day. These essays are a reminder that we need new thinking to protect the environment, promote equality and improve people's lives around the globe.

BIOGRAPHY

Bebe Vio was born in Venice on 4 March 1997. Since childhood, she has always been full of life and had lots of interests: school, drawing, scouting and above all fencing. When she was 11, a sudden attack of meningitis robbed her of her arms and legs.

But one of her greatest wishes was to be able to get back to sport, and she succeeded in doing so with the help of art4sport ONLUS and a team of specialised technicians. Bebe became the first athlete in the art4sport team.

In early May 2010 Bebe contested her first official match in Bologna, and since then she has taken part in a growing number of ever more exciting and entertaining competitions.

After winning in the European championships and World Cup in 2014, in 2015 she was crowned paralympic world champion in the individual foil category of the fencing championships. A few days later she won the bronze medal in the team competition. In 2016 she was awarded the gold medal in the individual competition at the XV Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and in 2017 she won her second paralympic world champion title in the individual foil category.

In 2018 she again won the gold medal at the European paralympic fencing championships.

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ISBN 978-92-861-4312-0 (EPUB)

ISBN 978-92-861-4313-7 (Pdf)

doi:10.2867/63687

QH-03-19-398-EN-E

© European Investment Bank, 2019

All rights reserved.

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Photos: © Gettyimages, © Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Big ideas
• I have a dream
• 2008: scouts, school and fencing
• 2010: wheelchair fencing
• 2016: first Paralympic games
• 2020: Tokyo Paralympic games
• Dreams that emerge along the way
• Biography