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Having had her legs and forearms amputated as a teenager after meningitis, the dazzling 27-year-old Italian fencer is also an advocate for inclusivity and vaccination. She enters Paralympic competition on Wednesday.
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Fencing at the Grand Palais: the poster was one of the hits of the Paris Olympic Games, with the public touched right in the heart. The Paralympic version also hits the mark. Practiced in a wheelchair, which is firmly held on the ground by a fixation device, in close proximity (the distance between the fighters is determined by the one with the shortest arm), this parasport is a crackle of attacks, feints, avoidances in a quasi-hand-to-hand combat. The Italian Beatrice Vio, with her style, her temperament and her trajectory, has what it takes to fuel the fireworks.
The way “Bebe” concluded her victory in Rio in 2016 is emblematic: she throws off her mask with a movement of her shoulder, then her youthful face appears, streaming with sweat and tears of joy, her blue gaze is ecstatic, she screams, before an immense, distraught smile. A burst of life and XXL triumph. Her assaults also run on liveliness, palpable: she springs or dodges in a flash but touches like a wasp, fine and dazzling. Opposite, adversity often seems extinguished, pale. But what we know about her
