Emanuele Lambertini

Started: He began wheelchair fencing in 2009 at age 10 in Bologna, Italy. (Athlete, 31 Jul 2016) Reason: "There is no reason why I chose fencing, I did not know anything about it at all. I tried thanks to Melissa Milani of the Paralympic Committee of Emilia-Romagna [Italy]. I liked it and I continued." (superabile.it, 04 Oct 2017) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (magazine.unibo.it, 02 Dec 2021) Milestones: At age 17, he was the youngest athlete to represent Italy in any sport at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (SportsDeskOnline, 06 Aug 2021; paralympic.org, 03 Dec 2020) Awards: In 2023 he received the Collare d'Oro for Sporting Merit in Italy. (Facebook page, 06 Jan 2024; coni.it, 22 Dec 2023) Additional Info: FUTURE PLANS He has studied automation engineering at university and wants to help build and develop multi-functional prosthetics. "I got the inspiration by myself because one day some years ago, I was in my orthopaedic [clinic] and I asked them for a particular bionic knee or foot for some creative stuff which you see in the movies, and the orthopaedic technician who was with me simply answered that those things I was talking about were not invented yet. So instead of crying for myself and complaining, 'Oh why [has] nobody invented [this] yet?' I said, 'You know what, I will invent them for everybody'. I see there are a lot of technologies that can let a person like me or any other amputee person do anything they like, but there's a lot of work to be done yet. I am studying this because I want to eliminate the differences that are still evident. For example, nowadays there isn't a unique prosthesis for walking, running, swimming and many other things. If you want to walk you use a prosthesis. If you want to run, you have to use another one and so on for all the other stuff you want to do. So, the first step would be to create a unique prosthesis which could include all the activities that anyone can do." (paralympic.org, 03 Dec 2020)