Paralympics-Italian veteran Marchese returns to Games chasing first curling medal

Italy's 57-year-old wheelchair curler Egidio Marchese, a rare winter sports athlete from the south of the country, believes a medal is within reach when the Milano Cortina Paralympics start in March. Born ‌in a small village 800 metres above sea level in the Sila mountains in the far southern region of Calabria, he moved to northern Italy at the age of 16 in search of work.

Italy's 57-year-old wheelchair curler Egidio Marchese, a rare winter sports athlete from the south of the country, believes a medal is within reach when the Milano Cortina Paralympics start in March.

Born ‌in a small village 800 metres above sea level in the Sila mountains in the far southern region of Calabria, he moved to northern Italy at the age of 16 in search of work. He first washed dishes ⁠and worked as a waiter around Lake Garda in the Trentino region, then moved to Valle d'Aosta, the Alpine region on Italy's northwestern border, where he worked in construction and eventually married and settled.

"I come from a very typical southern family. My father was a miner and my mother a housewife. I ​had to choose between studying or making money, and I chose the second," Marchese told Reuters. He still speaks with a Calabrian accent and ‍travels back south a couple of times a year to visit his mother and the rest of his family.

"My attachment to Calabria is strong, but I had to leave to make a living," he said. ACCIDENT CHANGED HIS LIFE

His life changed on January 10, 1997, when he was paralysed in a car accident. He did not work for seven years, but during ⁠that time ‌he married and had two children. "I asked ⁠my girlfriend if she felt comfortable being with someone in a wheelchair, and she said: I loved you before and I love you even more now," he said.

In 1999, a ‍friend from the Paralympic Federation asked him whether he wanted to help build a wheelchair curling team for the Turin 2006 Paralympic Winter Games, which marked its debut ​at a major global competition. He recalls training at an ice rink in Courmayeur in northern Italy. After their debut in Turin, Italy's wheelchair ⁠curling team also qualified for the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010, where they finished fifth, their best Paralympic result so far.

Italy will be the centre of the winter sports world from February ⁠6 when the Milano Cortina Olympic Games open. The Paralympics, where Marchese will compete, follow from March 6-15. At Milano Cortina the sport will feature two medal events: the mixed team competition, where Marchese will be skip, and the mixed doubles competition, which will be included in the programme for ⁠the first time.

Marchese said the team are training hard and hope to win a medal after strong results in recent tournaments. He added that ⁠leading competitors such as China and Canada "can ‌be challenged this year". "As the host country, we automatically qualify for the Cortina event, but we have also qualified on sporting merit because, in the three years leading up to the Games, we earned enough points in ⁠international competitions," he said.

"A medal is not impossible for us. We never stop dreaming," he said.

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