Brescia
Jun 20, 2024 1:57 pm
Mirko Testa, H3 category handbike world champion, has reached an even more prestigious goal than usual: the Bergamo native, born in 1997, won the competition to join the Fiamme Oro, the sports group of the State Police.
“I am delighted with this opportunity, because every athlete dreams of being recognized on a professional level. – states Testa – It is a real honour, which becomes double if you consider that I am the first Police athlete in paracycling and I achieved this goal only with my own strength, always supported by Active Sport. This recognition is a very important incentive to train even more and better towards the Paris 2024 goal.”
Great satisfaction also on the part of the Fiamme Oro, “A few years ago – says Nicola Assuntore, technical director of the cycling sector – we began to think in the direction of an opening to Paralympic athletes, under the pressure of the president of the CIP Luca Pancalli and the president of the Fiamme Oro, Francesco Montini. The aim is to offer them a perspective for the future, as well as support and facilities for training.”
Despite the new title, Testa will remain an athlete of the Active Team La Leonessa, by virtue of the double membership allowed by the Italian Cycling Federation to athletes from state bodies.
Testa’s sporting history has (re)started thanks to Active Sport, and the sport therapy project that the association has been carrying out for 10 years at the Domus Salutis in Brescia. “To all the people we meet – says Maurizio Antonini, founding member of Active Sport and project manager – we explain that sporting activity represents a very important vehicle for getting your life back. We show various Paralympic activities and propose the practice of some. I remember that Mirko, at the first meeting with us, was not immediately enthusiastic, perhaps he still had to fully understand his new situation. But then he wanted to try: first wheelchair tennis, then hand biking: he fell in love with it and in just a few years he has done enormous things”.
