Paolo Cecchetto

Paolo Cecchetto

The Redeemer monument on Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro stands with arms outstretched.

Paolo Cecchetto, a Legnanese born in 1967, kisses the gold medal of the 2016 Paralympics after winning the handbike line race. This is just one of his successes, but perhaps the most beautiful. No one would have ever imagined on July 16, 1988, when Paolo was paralyzed in the fifth dorsal vertebra in a motorcycle accident, that he would have won a gold medal at the Paralympics.

After 6 months of rehabilitation, Paolo decided to try Paralympic sport, starting with wheelchair athletics and returning to work at a library. Paolo was reborn and met Laura, with whom he married and raised their three children: Rebecca, Noah and Mattia. The handbike entered his life in Germany, replacing the Olympic wheelchair. In 2007, Paolo won the Verona marathon beating the “unbeatable” Roland Ruep. The victories continued to add up, but the decisive leap in quality came with Team Equa: after the unfortunate experience at the London Paralympics and the recurring thought of abandoning the competitions, Paolo was “overwhelmed” by the enthusiasm of Laura and Ercole Spada. The new bet was called Federico Sannelli, the coach with whom Paolo had a great time.

2016 became a legend with the gold in Rio, in 2017 the world championships in South Africa arrived, in 2018 the second place in the world time trial. The Team Relay with Alex Zanardi and Luca Mazzone consecrated Paolo as world champion in 2019, but after the beaches of Rio it was the lights of Tokyo that unleashed Cecchetto. Paolo’s medals had many faces, from that of his wife Laura to that of Ercole Spada, from friends/sponsors Gianni Conte and Marta and Christ Peterson and Stephane Massard, “smiths” of bikes with excellent materials to compete at the top.

But the face on the main face of the coin was his.

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