Paralympic sprinter Alessandro Ossola had one of the best days of his life on Sunday – and it had nothing to do with his racing.
Ossola may have failed to qualify for the final of the T63 100 meters, but the Italian secured a “yes” from his ecstatic girlfriend after proposing to her in the stands of the Stade de France after the race.
“You’re crazy!” Ossola’s shocked partner Arianna said as he knelt and asked for her hand in marriage in front of a crowd of 40,000 people.
“Our relationship is like a maelstrom because every athlete needs people around them to push them,” he told the official Olympic website.
“Sometimes, she believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that’s something truly amazing. ‘You can do it, you can succeed, you can, you can,’ she would say. This is something everyone needs, and I hope that everyone finds someone like her. She is my partner … for life.”
Ossola asked his girlfriend to marry him after competing in the men’s 100m T63 on Sunday.
Christophe Ena/AP
Ossola lost most of his left leg in a 2015 motorcycle accident, which also claimed the life of his first wife.
He credits sport as providing him with a “way to take action and a way out of a very dark period,” adding: “After my accident, I lost a lot – everything but my smile – but sport pushed me to smile more and more.”
He reflected on the race by saying: “Some might say today wasn’t an amazing day for me from a sporting perspective. I say it was. At 36 years old, I was competing with the best in the world, and I’m really proud of that.”
Ossola, also the founder of the world’s first inclusive padel circuit and a non-profit association tasked with challenging people’s misconceptions about disabilities, hinted that this may be his last Paralympics, having also competed in Tokyo three years ago.
“With what I’ve achieved in these last days at the Paris Paralympics, I feel like I’ve closed that circle. Now, I’m ready to start along a new path because my life isn’t over, and I have many things left to do,” he added.
A summer of Olympic and Paralympic love
With this year’s Games set in the City of Love, it’s no wonder there have been so many proposals among athletes and their significant others.
During the Olympics, Argentine handball player Pablo Simonet proposed to hockey player and compatriot Pilar Campoy in the Olympic Village, while French athlete Alice Finot headed over to her boyfriend in the stands to propose to him in a heartwarming moment at the Stade de France after claiming fourth place and setting a new European record in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase.
After winning gold in the mixed doubles event, Chinese badminton player Huang Yaqiong’s was proposed to by her boyfriend and fellow badminton player Liu Yuchen.
And at this year’s Paralympics, badminton player Rogerio Junior Xavier de Oliveira got down on one knee to propose to sitting volleyball player and fellow Brazilian Edwarda de Oliveira Dias during the men’s singles SL4 group play stage SL4, holding a sign reading ‘Edwarda Will You Marry Me?’
“What a most incredible moment. It was a beautiful surprise. I wasn’t expecting this. We have been through so much to get here and today, another great dream came true,” Oliveira said following the proposal.
Her husband-to-be added: “I wanted to take this moment to ask her to marry me because she has been one of the most important people for me to be here today.
“She motivated me, made me believe and showed me the right path here. I am so happy. To ask her to marry me at that moment was incredible for me.”
