At the Paralympics there will be a record-breaking Italy for women

The largest and most female team ever with the aim of continuing the blue dream after the European football championships and the achievements of the Olympic team. Tokyo 2020 is preparing to be tinged with red, green and blue, the colors of Paralympics: from 25 August, the first of the 115 blues present in 15 competitions of the Paralympics expedition will take the field. Which for Italy will be even more pink, given that for the first time the number of women present exceeded that of men 63 athletes against 52 athletes, + 14.7% compared to Rio 2016 with a female presence, equal to 54 , 7%. Leading the expedition is the champion Bebe Vio, gold medal in individual foil and bronze in team foil, already on the platform at the Makuhari Messe on 25 August following the ceremony ofopening in which he will act as flag bearer together with the swimmer Federico Morlacchi, also immediately in the pool (as well as the blues of table tennis) on the first day in the men's 400 freestyle qualifiers.

At the press conference organized today by the International Paralympic Committee, along with other world stars was also present Bebe Vio, who confided all her "emotion" for a return to competitions that she had been missing for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic: "I'm very happy to be here, I missed the emotions of the competition too much", admitted the Italian champion, saying she was "a little scared but very happy to be competing again. I couldn't think of changing sport and doing something other than fencing - then admitted the blue flag bearer - this group is my family, we always train together and if you manage to live so intensely with your group, then your dreams coincide with those of your teammates ".With the hope of repeating the exploits of Rio with that exultation full of excitement that quickly went viral all over the world: "It was a kind of explosion of emotions: joy, tears, I recognize that I looked a bit crazy" , joked the blue champion. "I have wanted it since I started fencing at the age of five: I wanted to get here and I did it", concluded Bebe Vio, recalling the rise that led her to win two Paralympic medals already at age of 19.I started fencing: I wanted to get here and I did it ", concluded Bebe Vio, recalling the rise that led her to win two Paralympic medals at the age of 19.I started fencing: I wanted to get here and I did it ", concluded Bebe Vio, recalling the rise that led her to win two Paralympic medals at the age of 19.

At the inauguration ceremony to be held at the Olympic stadium in Tokyo (1 pm Italian time), the blue will captain, together with Morlacchi, a team that has the ambitious goal of improving the 39 overall medals won in Rio 2016 (10 gold, 14 silvers, 15 bronzes) and 9th place in the medal table. For the blues and blues of taekwondo and sitting volleyball this is the debut at a Paralympic game. While Italian judo returns to a Paralympics after 13 years: the last participation dates back to Beijing 2008. The discipline with the most athletes competing is swimming (29), which also represents the group with the lowest average age. : 25.6 years. The youngest athlete of the entire blue expedition is Matteo Parenzan, from table tennis, 18 years old on 23 June last,while the one with more experience is Francesca Porcellato, star of para-cycling with a past in athletics and Nordic skiing, in her eleventh Paralympics.