Life is, by definition, surprising. In the sense that, for better or worse, it always surprises us. Telling the story of Pierluigi Bonafin is not easyeven if, at least for a long period of his young existence, the pieces of the mosaic seemed like they could fit together with the desired serenity.
Pierluigi Bonafin is now 52 years old, he is from Rovigo and in Rovigo he grew up and achieved many of the objectives that a young person simply tries to achieveAnd. A sports lover, he spent his adolescence between rugby, and it couldn’t be otherwise for a Rovigo with a controlled designation of origin, and swimming, but does not disdain the mountains, an ideal place for skiing and climbing. All without neglecting his commitments, in some ways, equally important and Bonafin graduated in law from the University of Ferrara, became a criminal lawyer and began, in this role, a brilliant career. But life is, as we were saying, surprising, and in this case the surprise is not exactly a happy one.
In May 2018 Pierluigi Bonafin, together with his partner Michela, he is the victim of a very serious motorcycle accident and the consequences are dramatic. Both of them had their left legs amputated and life for the two young people had to be rethought, reset and resumed in evidently different conditions. Life is surprising and surprisingly, thanks to the character, determination and strength of these two people, it manages, once again, to amaze. Pierluigi and Michela, we imagine, will first have looked in themselves and in the people closest to them for the strength to start looking with confidence at a different everyday life, then in their respective commitments and, in parallel, to the passions that had marked their existence before the accident, first and foremost sport.
Pierluigi, with Michela nearby, returns to the pool, discovers the world of pedals and handbikes thanks to Alex Zanardi. His professional career resumes, completing his baggage with the topic that he has necessarily taken to heart in recent years, the legal aspects inherent to the world of disability. The rest is recent history until the latest successes, the latest being second place in the Italian Paralympic indoor freediving championship last weekend in Turin.
The discovery of freediving is recent history: “I approached freediving last autumn thanks to Fabrizio Pagani, a world-class Paralympic athlete, I immediately liked it and became passionate about it. I came into contact with the ‘Club Sommozzatori Rovigo’ and so this wonderful adventure in paralympic freediving began.
Adventure that Bonafin is undertaking with other important travel companions: “The Rovigo Diving Club team performed very well at the Italian championships: Fabio Travaglini, an athlete from Lendinara, established himself in dynamic freediving with Dynb fins and without Dnf, and Michela Dal Bianco became national champion of the dynamic freediving category without Dnf fins. “I would say, without exaggeration, great results – says president Giovanni Rossi”.
“Great satisfaction on the part of the technical staff and the entire club for the feat of the Rovigo standard bearers who managed to achieve an unexpected result, for a club and athletes, on their absolute debut in competitions. But the feeling is that the party has just begun – continues the president – we have the world championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro in our sights. We will try to prepare as best we can and, obviously, it is necessary to further raise the level of our performances to be competitive with the absolute best. The world of Paralympic sport is constantly evolving, both in terms of number of athletes and in terms of performance. And this makes me particularly happy.”
