The athlete brought his testimony among the stories of the Paralympic athletes, “men and women of peace and hope”
TARQUINIA – The Handbike champion Tiziano Monti brought his testimony to the presentation of the book at the Olympic stadium “Peace Games”the soul of the Olympics and Paralympics, published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana with Vatican Athletics and edited by Vincenzo Parrinello, just on the eve of the sports summer in Paris and with a preface by Pope Francis.
Testimonies of suffering that are intertwined with the desire for a peaceful future to which we can look forward with confidence thanks to sport. Like the story of Tiziano who was left without his legs after a terrible road accident, when he lost control of his car, on the motorway towards Civitavecchia, going against that guardrail which was a blade for his body.
“It was 2018 – says the athlete – a year later I went for a specialist visit and when I called the lift I found Alex Zanardi in front of me. I only managed to ask him if we could take a photo together. Instead he looked at me and exclaimed: “But with the physique you have, why don’t you come run with me?”. “Let’s hope!” I replied, I think I was almost shouting“.
And so Tiziano Monti has become one of the promising athletes of Objective3the project founded by the Paralympic champion Alex Zanardi, aims to introduce young people with disabilities to the practice of sport, which today sees over 120 Paralympic athletes crossing Italy on handbikes, some of them participating in “The tricolor relay”, an event born in 2020 with the pandemic, to uniting Italy from north to south as a push towards resilience and rebirth which sees Titian among the witnesses. For him the first call-up Italian paracycling national team and now the dream of participating in the world championships after the victory as absolute Italian champion in the handbike time trial, category MH5, with the handbike shell built by Dallara for Alex Zanardi. “It took a long team effort to adapt it to its physiognomy – they explain from Objective 3 – also supported by Cetilar Sport. A job that led to the construction of a new bike with which Tiziano dreams of participating in the next Paralympics. Being able to use a medium that he himself had conceived makes me share his values and continue with his project. Life changes, it transforms but it doesn’t end and sport helps you start again stronger than before.”
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