Armani Milano at Bebe Vio Academy

"I didn't expect this intensity, I was almost afraid of getting hurt but they didn't, they jumped on those wheelchairs like they were bumper cars." The speaker is Giampaolo Ricci, one of the emotional leaders of Armani Milano, and they are the boys of the Bebe Vio Academy, created by the Olympic champion together with Nike. With Ricci arrived from Olimpia Davide Alviti and Paul Biligha to confront themselves with the boys who in the center can practice five Paralympic sports, in an inclusive structure and open to both children with disabilities and anyone interested in trying. As the three players of Olimpia did for an afternoon, alternating first wheelchair basketball, fencing, sitting volley in the field with the enthusiastic kids, ready to measure themselves with professional athletes. 

A unique experience that has deeply affected the players of Milan, grappling with sports to which they were not accustomed and that have posed challenges to which they were not ready. "Difficulties that for us do not exist, for them are daily and they have learned to deal with them," says Paul Biligha. And for Davide Alviti, Paralympic sports are indispensable means to help integration and should also be open to normal children, as happens at the Bebe Vio Academy.

A lesson in sports in the name of inclusiveness, a word that is becoming more and more common in Italian sports as well. "In the U.S., this kind of initiative is the order of the day and we hope it will soon be the same in Italy," Paul Biligha tells us on the sidelines as the wheelchairs collide and the intensity rises. When Paul commits a trivial turnover he is picked up by his teammates as not even Messina would do, a testament to how much the sport remains a competition at whatever level it takes place. "I liked that they live the sport like that, wanting to win and celebrating every basket. That's the sense of competitiveness for me," Ricci also confirms. There is no difference between the Bebe Vio Academy and the Mediolanum Forum, this is the biggest victory put on the court today. 

Photo credits: Alberto Feltrin