Riccardo Bagaini

  • Date of birth

    October 12th  2020

  • Region

    Piemonte

  • Prostheses

    Left forearm

  • Sports discipline

    Athletics, skiing, football

  • Hobby

    All the sports and travel

  • art4sport memeber

    Since 2004

Work hard, always!

Ph Marco Mantovani

Riccardo’s story

Riccardo was born in Sorengo, a small Swiss commune in Canton Ticino, on October 12th 2000. He was born with his left limb missing on his forearm, due to a crazy cell that stopped growing during the fifth week of pregnancy.

Riccardo’s parents, Silvano and Silvana, were told during a follow-up visit in the sixteenth week of pregnancy that Riccardo would be born with an interrupted limb.

As a child or teenager, Riccardo did not give much thought to his situation, which he has always experienced with great dignity.

He is a pragmatic boy, with a solution in his pocket for every circumstance, and this has led him to be very independent.

Despite his major sporting and scholastic commitments, Riccardo has plenty of friends in his life, with whom he spends every free moment.

Since he was a child, he has played sports, initially skiing, then football (also at a competitive level in the youth sector) and finally athletics.

Riccardo met new people from all over the world and visited cities he had never seen before. But the most unexpected discovery has been the world of athletes, which he finds a wonder.

Now he is starting to set his goals higher and higher, he often remembers when and how this incredible journey began.

His physical education teacher asked him to take part in the student cross-country race against boys with similar problems to his own. That’s how he won his first Italian cross-country title in 2013 and repeated it the following year, then decided to start running ‘for real’ in a Paralympic club, GSH Sempione 82, in 2014.

He took part in the IWAS World Youth Championships in Holland in 2015, the following year in the Absolute European Championships in Grosseto but the breakthrough year was 2017. What is a turning point? Participation in the Youth Europeans and two World Championships in the same year: London and Nottwil!

The following year he won 3 medals at the Europeans in Berlin: silver in the amputee relay, bronze in the universal relay and the most important bronze in the 200 meters.

But his biggest ambition remains participation in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Finally, let’s not forget his motto that he repeats at every competition: “Always work hard!”

Riccardo’s parents became aware of art4sport association through a meeting with Bebe’s family at the Arte Ortopedica in Budrio.

Riccardo joined the art4sport team in October 2014, during the “Believe to be Alive” event in Rome, where the whole art4sport team and their families were met by Pope Francis.

Riccard’ssports achievements

Indoor Italian Championship in Ancona (January 2021):

  • 400 mt T47: gold medal with Italian record (52.63″)

European Championships in Bydgoszcz – Poland (June 2021):

  • 400 mt T47: bronze medal with tricolour record of 50.92

Fratel Carlo e Fratel Mario Memorial in Turin (June 2021):

400 mt T47: Italian lap record with a time of 50.56

Ph Marco Mantovani

Davide ObinoEdoardo GiordanEdoardo Giordan