Interview with Vittorio Podesta World Champion and Olympic gold medal Handbike 
We make a priority of your challenges larger in these first thirty years of your life? Always conflict in my relationship with my father, I think it's the first challenge was to tell him: "I'm going to study geometry, not go to high school because it is too ipegnativo. It was as if someone had told me: "Look, you do this, which is the easiest way", and then requires me to do it. I reaction to the answer: "No, I change the road, and shows you that even before arrival." Without knowing how that road, it's like you scommettessi the dark.
also get his degree in Civil Engineering has been a challenge, although it has given me great satisfaction. I took it more like a sense of duty, but the goal of graduating I stimulated a lot. So much so that when I graduated I did not even celebrated. I had taken a weight off, I had achieved something that had to be achieved, it was like when you're switching between nausea and the nausea when you go: it's not that celebrate something like that ... but after a few days the nausea is back ... I'd have work ... and this was another duty that I could not escape
Another challenge was to not leave the job (at a Society of highways), when I realized - from new graduate in Civil Engineering - I had been beaten in the trenches, full of responsibility even though I was the last to arrive. At that moment I could say, "No thanks, not yet in a position, I'm ready." And many people do. Not because I went to start my career with a resignation would be a defeat, and because I wanted to prove to myself what I could do. I gritted my teeth and I pulled forward, learning all about my skin, and going to work until 12 to 14 hours a day. After six months I asked for a pay rise, though still with a fixed-term contract ... and that few have the courage to do it ... I also had many challenges
sentimental for me to try to fall in love with a girl that I liked has always been one of my greatest satisfactions.
... ... and what do you mean the challenge of the chair? the wheelchair I do not see it as a challenge If you come across a difficulty that you have not chosen, and for which you have no choice, this difficulty can not be considered a challenge. For me the challenge is when there are at least two roads, and I have to choose one. If I only have one road that challenge?
If you really want to talk about challenges, I can say that my challenge is to feel good on the wheelchair. E 'say: "Vittorio, in a wheelchair proved that you can live like and who has the best legs." So yes, to prove to some people that the wheelchair can be better than with the legs, and their legs ... .. then yes, this can be a challenge.
Immediately after the accident, when I realized he had lost forever the use of his legs, the first thing I thought I could not ride a bike more, and this was the thing I valued the most , my lifeline. Then I thought, if life had brought me before this could mean that expecting what I could have been even bigger. This was a feeling, a sort of premonition that I can not explain. I said: "Vittorio, now let's see what you can do and now I'm curious to see what will happen, what life will be full."
What do you tell people who happen to a "turning point" like yours, how do you react in this way? I always thought that life was a bit 'as the Tour of Italy, with departures and arrivals have already set (a sort of destiny, if we want to call it that), but how to get from one stage to another depends on us, our decisions, our behaviors in different situations. I did not see the incident as a punishment. In the life of a person, like it or not, there are still moments of great suffering and distress. At the time of the accident I thought. "Vittorio Just look in all the boxes (ie one of possible lives that we chose before birth) there is a scam or more than one. You've got a rip-off now, so perhaps those who come after will seem less a rip off. "
Among the many evils, ugly, that can happen, I think that happened to me is the least bad, because it allows me to do anything anyway, apart from walking.
You really think that your second life (as you call it) is better than before? For now, absolutely. Because now I do something I really like it. Of course I would not mind to walk again, but if this would mean losing everything I have achieved in this second life, then I think I would choose not to go back. What I'm doing now has little to do with my studies in Civil Engineering, but much has to do with my wealth of knowledge, experience and passions. Nell'handbike I found all the best that I could find a job. If they had told me: "Choose five characteristics you want your job, you like them" .... And many are you?, Because even if you're lucky I like a .... Here, in my work there are more than five I like.
all'Handbike How did you come? I was passionate about the bike before the accident, not only for cycling, ma anche del mezzo, della tecnica e della meccanica della bicicletta, di ogni sua componente. Quando ho visto l’handbike è stato amore a prima vista e ne ho subito ordinata una del modello migliore sul mercato in quel momento, uguale a quella del mio amico Marco, la persona che…Appena è arrivata, ad agosto 2003, mi sono messo ad andare in handbike praticamente tutti i giorni: raggiungevo al massimo 14-15 km/h (ora arrivo in pianura anche oltre i 45 km/h) eppure già lì ero impazzito. Ho pensato: questa è la cosa più vicina alla bici che ci sia, e mi piace tantissimo!
Già dopo solo un mese ho voluto partecipare alla mia prima gara, e sono arrivato tra gli ultimi. Eppure già dalle prime gare alle quali I attended, I watched the first arrivals, the strongest, and not the last. Viewing who had won. I asked him what they did and how much they trained,
In May 2004 I participated in the Italian Championship Handbike, and I came second. Until that time I was training alone, do not follow me no coach. I did it for fun, to participate in competitions, yes, but mostly for fun.
What is the difference between victory and defeat? Want to know how small the difference between victory and defeat?! Between a life "better" life and "bad"? For many of the addicts I've met during the Civil Service in the Community was a moment, a split second, something almost insignificant, the slap of a friend who says "Come on, let's go somewhere else."
that I have experienced in the World 2007, when I happened to arrive at a curve too fast, however, did not want to stop, I slowed down too much for the next straight, and the result was that my handbike remained on two wheels and then left the road. Behold, at that moment I almost lost everything. But I was cold, and also the fortune of being able to keep the bike straight and avoid it falling over ... .. I have only widened the corner and then I came up road. I've lost about 10-12 seconds, and could claim the victory ... I found myself on the track and in any case I said, 'Okay, come on, everybody! ". I kept my teeth clenched, until the last, "but how should I go I want to finish the test, having given everything." I went on and won the World Cup. It 'been a fraction of a second: that moment could mark one of the biggest disappointments of my life, and instead he scored one of the greatest victories ... hopefully not the greatest but ...
What is the thing that gives you the most trouble about your disabling condition? It annoys me when the mode of asking the other is too influenced by my being in a wheelchair. It annoys me his embarrassment, the fact that I see in trouble when in fact I'm not in distress.
For a normal person to lose his legs seems to be the worst thing in the world. Once in a wheelchair, you realize you can do a thousand other things. I had been told before the accident - look, you lose your legs, but your life will riserberà this kind of satisfaction - I would not have accepted it, because I was stupid at that point of view, being able-bodied. I gave my legs an even greater importance than they really are. The able-bodied consider her ways things they could not give up. The Mobility has a sensitivity in more and better understands what things are truly essential and those where you can also do without in some way.
