Rigivan Ganeshamoorthyborn in 1999 in Dragona, Rome’s 10th municipality, surprised everyone this summer with his extraordinary performance in the discus throw at the Paris Paralympics (with three world records in a row) and his charisma. On Saturday, November 30, he spoke in Florence at the talk show “Champions Tell Their Stories”, an event organized today as part of 28th International Fair Play Menarini Awardwhere he shared his life story, starting from the illness that struck him in 2017, Guillain-Barré syndrome and the severe cervical trauma two years later: ‘The first days after the accident were tough for everyone because I was depressed and thought why did this happen to me, why all this.’

Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy, after gold, the disappointment: “I received insensitive messages about the color of my skin”

Rigi Ganeshamoorthy: “I’m very lucky”

However, Rigi managed to overcome despair: ‘Then you understand the meaning of life, the things you experience and even doing physical therapy makes you say, “I’m still alive, I can talk, eat”there are other people who don’t achieve this, and I’m proud of what I’ve done. At first I didn’t think I could do the sport I do, then I tried and I was proud.’

About his life today, after gold medalhe added: ‘I don’t like to talk about myself so much because everyone knows my story, I have nothing to update, everything remains as it was in Paris. My fortune was to have the right people around me who opened my mind to think about sports; otherwise you stay in your chair and only reflect on the bad and ugly things in life. I was very lucky because I saw another life opening up in front of me.’