Star Wars also owes the primacy of Rio 2016 a little, because if he learned and fell in love with fencing – so much so that he became the youngest Italian athlete to participate in the Paralympics – the credit also goes to the Jedi. Having picked up the sword at the age of nine made him feel a little like them. And he, Emanuele Lambertini, class of 1999, automation engineering student with a passion for the piano, fencing would never leave her. For years he has been one of the athletes of the Art4Sport ONLUS, the association that will bring the eleventh edition of the WEmbrace Games to Rome, at the Stadio del Marmi, on 12 June, games to embrace sport in a great event of inclusion.
WEmbrace Games, sport a 360 gradi
The idea of the WEmbrace Games, recalls Emanuele, comes from afar. It was 2011, the art4sport association, born on the impetus of Bebe Vio’s parents, Teresa Grandis and Ruggero, was just two years old, and Emanuele had been one of the very first to join it, after meeting Bebe in a prosthesis center. Those first games – for a long time called Games without barriers – served above all as an opportunity to meet, to get to know and be known, on the sidelines of the sporting events in which one participated. “Then we grew up and so Teresa’s (president of the association, ed.) idea was to transform it into a 360-degree sports event, which would bring together sighted, blind, amputee, wheelchair and able-bodied athletes, in mixed teams with all types of physical abilities and regardless of their abilities, to play together, all at the same level”, explains Emanuele, who suffered an amputation in his right leg at the age of eight following a very rare vascular malformation. Twelve years after those games without barriers, which have now become the WEmbrace Games to underline even more their inclusive nature, they are an event that brings together sportsmen, celebrities and athletes, this year under the motto “Let’s change the rules of the game!” .
Smart Home, technology at the service of people with disabilities
by Irma D’Aria
“The utopia of the perfect team”
It is played in teams and eight will take the field on Monday in a show that recalls the challenges of games without borders, to raise funds for the study and financing of expensive prostheses and sports equipment to support children and teenagers with prostheses limb. The fundraising event – presented by Trio Medusa – is open to all (free booking here and donations on the spot) and Emanuele will be part of one of the teams that will compete at the Stadio dei Marmi, that of Bologna, together with other able-bodied or disabled athletes, show business personalities and children. The aim, in fact, is to create teams that represent the utopia of the perfect team, to use the words that Bebe Vio used today in Rome during the presentation of the event in the Campidoglio: “The aim of games is to put barriers in front of people and see how they all face them together, because everyone alone, no matter how big or heavy, is not enough and all the members of the team must be there to be able to get to the end. If the team works together well, they can win” .
Smart Home, technology at the service of people with disabilities
by Irma D’Aria
Sport as a goal
On the other hand, Emanuele, like Bebe, is used to competitions. After falling in love with fencing, as soon as he was old enough to take part in competitions he started doing it. “Fencing and competitions have been the way to continue fighting: after the battle against the disease you remain a fighter for life, but this time for passion”. Since then he has put aside a palmares that counts three golds at the last world cup in Brazil (individual foil, individual épée and mixed team foil) and a gold and a silver at the Italian championships in Macerata last year (in epee and in individual foil), just to mention the latest results. But Emanuele is looking ahead and after Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo 2020 he is now dreaming of the next Olympics in Paris in 2024. The Olympics, however, are not this boy’s only dream: “I study automation engineering and I hope one day to be able to new prostheses, something that can allow you to ‘fly to the sky’ like Iron Man – he says – everyone should have a clear goal to achieve, it is the engine of life to understand where we want to go, in sport, as well as in study or in relationships. Having it means committing yourself, making sacrifices to be able to do something more”.