PARIS — Italian fencing star Bebe Vio had to be content with the bronze medal at the Paralympic Games on Wednesday after China’s Xiao Rong ended her dream of a third consecutive gold in wheelchair fencing.
Vio cried after losing 15-9 to Xiao in the semifinals, then again after beating another Chinese fencer, Su Kang, 15-7 in their repechage round 4 bout to reach the bronze medal decider in the women’s foil category B for fencers who have a disability that prevents voluntary movement of their trunk.
But Vio screamed with delight after beating Cho Eun Hye of South Korea 15-2 in the bout for bronze. She stood on chairs using her prosthetic legs to celebrate with Italian flag-waving supporters in the stands. Her fans had sung “We love you Bebe” at the Grand Palais as she surged into a comfortable lead.
“Of course, you can not be happy with the bronze,” the 27-year-old Vio said of her defeat to Xiao. “But she was better than me mentally, physically. She deserved the win. Still, I’m so proud about my result today. I still have to compete in the team’s event tomorrow. Losing a medal doesn’t mean that you lose all of them.”
Xiao, who won the bronze at the last Games in Tokyo, faced Saysunee Jana of Thailand for the gold medal later Wednesday.
Oksana Masters claimed another gold medal at a Paralympics earlier by defending her title in para cycling’s H4-5 individual time trial.
The American multi-sport specialist clocked 23 minutes, 45.20 seconds to finish 6.24 seconds ahead of Chantal Haenen of the Netherlands and a whopping 1 minute, 27.87 seconds ahead of China’s Sun Bianbian.
It takes Masters’ career total to eight golds — and 18 medals overall — from both summer and winter Games.
Masters will also compete in a H5 road race as defending champion on Thursday, before she wraps up her Paris Games in the mixed H1-5 team relay on Saturday.
Masters was born in 1989 near Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, and has birth defects believed to be from the aftermath of the disaster.
She was adopted by an American mother when she was a child. She had her left leg amputated near the knee at 9 and the right one at the same spot five years later.
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AP writer Tom Nouvian contributed.
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AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games
