Write Active Team La Leonessa, read triumph. Always, however, everywhere, whether in the Italian national competitions, or in the World Para-cycling Championships last weekend in Baie-Comeau (Canada), it makes no difference. Among the many medals won by the Italian national team, three bear the signature of Active’s two athletes summoned to the blue team, with two golds in the WH1 category for Simona Canipari (who confirmed both the successes she took in 2021 in Portugal) and a very heavy bronze in the MH3 for Mirko Testa, now among the fastest in the world. A haul exactly identical to that of the European Championships raced at the end of May in Peuerbach/Steegen (Austria), but on an even more prestigious and attended stage.

Once again to be applauded is Canipari, class of 1968 from Villanuova sul Clisi, who won the time trial on Thursday and two days later did the encore in the road race. “We are proud of Simona’s results,” says Marco Colombo, president of Active Sport, “because running certain races with a disability like hers is exhausting. This world championship was first of all yet another challenge against herself, and she won it again. With great preparation and a lot of effort.”

Equally valuable was the bronze medal of the 25-year-old Testa, third in the time trial in an all-Italian podium, and then even bitterly disappointed with his fourth place in the road race, closed just five seconds behind French gold medal winner Riadh Tarsim. “Mirko,” says Sergio Balduchelli, captain of Active Team La Leonessa, “has confirmed that he has a thick future ahead of him. After the race he sent us a message that read ‘this is just the beginning’: we are all convinced of that. I am proud of his and Simona’s achievements, and we dream along with them.”

Canipari and Testa’s achievements are as valid for the national team as they are for Active Sport, because both athletes (re)discovered themselves as athletes starting from a hospital bed, thanks to the Sport Therapy project at the Domus Salutis in Brescia. “Simona,” says Colombo again, “found in her beloved cycling the motivation to get out of a very complicated situation, while Mirko immediately showed great determination to compete again after a motocross accident.

He tried handbiking when he was still involved in rehabilitation, and not even four years later he is on the podium at the world championships: it is proof that starting young allows one to set really important goals. We have worked hard to put him in the ideal conditions, but it is his willpower that has led him to this umpteenth milestone. We are convinced that he can give so much to the national handbike movement.”

Their achievements, as well as those of many teammates, are the spearhead of a much broader project, and not necessarily devoted to competitive racing. “Today,” Colombo continues, “Active Sport has the ability to support a wide range of people, regardless of their potential competitive performance. As an association, what we are most concerned about is ferrying people with disabilities on a path back to an active life, with sport as the vehicle.” If world medals also come along, so much the better.