Six champion Paralympic athletes. Nearly five hundred competitors in tournaments and sports activities. Thousands more visiting the various events across three days.
The numbers from the second edition of "Parolimparty" match—and surpass—last year's extraordinary results. This sprawling multisport beach convention animated the "Open Sea AISM" lido in Milazzo for three days, the only facility in Sicily offering assisted swimming for all.
The Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association, MediterraneaEventi, Bios, and the Municipality of Milazzo—four organizations that promoted the event—call it a genuine success. There, disabled and nondisabled athletes competed side by side in nine tournaments: wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, basketball (baskin), foosball, archery, fencing, and various fitness activities. Competitive athletes and amateurs, children and adults, all played under the same rules.
«Three days devoted to inclusion. Parolimparty is something you have to live from beginning to end,» says Angelo La Via, national board member of AISM, the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association. He speaks of a continuous cultural shift: «From an open sea for everyone to sports open to everyone. It's clear that at this lido, emotion and competition meet the heart of the volunteers. I believe that living Parolimparty frees you from prejudice and suspicion and lets you encounter the person. Parolimparty is a constant discovery of feeling and perspective: these days kindle hope for a more inclusive society. There is still much work to do, but AISM, Mediterranea Eventi, and Bios chose to invest in a project that wants to make a difference—aware that disability belongs to all of us, not to some of us alone. I hope real inclusion becomes more than words. It is people's right to tear down architectural barriers, but it is also our duty to make it happen».
La Via ended with a wish: «I want to launch the 2020 edition so it can be even more competitive and well-attended».
«In this second edition we reached new goals: adding more sports and receiving wonderful reactions from all the participants. I was the first to feel it, watching eight-year-old children compete fearlessly with disabled athletes and then ask world champions—people we hosted who have conquered their disabilities—for autographs. Champions who are not famous like Totti or Del Piero».
Alfredo Finanze, president of Mediterranea Eventi and the driving force behind Parolimparty—its creator, promoter, and coordinator—continues: «We are very pleased because we enriched this second edition with a spectacular sport like wheelchair rugby, and we are already planning an initiative to involve clubs across Italy next year».
Many Paralympic champions came to Milazzo to serve as ambassadors, telling the world how sport tears down every barrier—physical and cultural alike. Among them: Valeria Pappalardo, Italy's first competitive fencer with multiple sclerosis; Nadia Bala, the national face of sitting volleyball; Francesco Bonanno, a nine-time foosball champion; Carmelo Messina, world champion with Italy's national five-a-side football team; Salvo Mirabella, team manager of "Wheelchair Rugby Catania," the only wheelchair rugby squad in southern Italy; and Simona Cascio, captain of Italy's national deaf women's basketball team.
Source: Gazzetta del Sud