Italy won its first two golds at the
Tokyo Paralympics Wednesday as Carlotta Gilli won the S13 100m
butterfly and Francesco Bocciardo won the S5 200m freestyle.
Alessia Berra silver in the S12 100m butterfly.
In the first day of competition Italy has so far reaped four
medals: two golds, a silver and a bronze.
Turin-born Gilli, 20, is a partially sighted swimmer who holds
twelve world records in her class.
She won a total of nine golds at the 2017 and 2019 world
championships.
Genoa-born Bocciardo, 27, is a triple World and European
champion who participated at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and
the 2016 Summer Paralympics where he was the Paralympic champion
in the men's 400m freestyle S6.
Bocciardo has a disability called spastic distal tetraplegia
which affects the movement in his legs, he was encouraged to do
swimming as a part of rehabilitative therapy at a young age then
he started swimming competitively in 2010 at the Italian
national championships.
Bocciardo has won three world titles and three European titles
in freestyle swimming and his most successful championships was
at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships where he won two
golds, two silvers and one bronze.
Berra, 27, has won a number of other medals.
Francesco Bettella won bronze in the men's S1 100m backstroke as
Italy picked up its first medal at the Tokyo Paralympics earlier
Wednesday.
Veteran Bettella represented Italy at the 2012 Paralympics and
at the 2016 Paralympics.
In 2016, he won two medals: the silver medal both in the men's
50 metre backstroke S1 event and in the men's 100 metre
backstroke S1 event.
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