La Coppia dei Sogni (in Italian) means ‘The Dream Couple’. The “Dream Couple” is made up of Emanuele Di Marino, born with a congenital malformation called clubfoot, and Arjola Dedaj, born with retinitis pigmentosa which it worsened to the point of blindness.
They are the two athletes from the National Paralympic Athletics Team: Emanuele, Category T44, specializes in the 100m, 200m and 400m, while Arjola, Category T11, runs the 100m and 200m and does the long jump. The joint story of the two champions is “dreamlike”, the personal ones are incredible.
Having immigrated in the 90s on board a dinghy, Arjola also tried her hand at dance and baseball before dedicating herself to athletics, while the man from Salerno has become the fastest person with clubfoot in the world despite doctors’ skeptical predictions.
In 2014 they won their first international medals at the European Championships in Swansea and in 2016 they participated in the Paralympics. At the 2021 European Championships, the last event that saw them compete together, they achieved 3 podiums. In between there were 3 medals at the 2017 World Championships and the conquest of the best prize: the arrival of their firstborn Leonardo.
Arjola and Emanuele loves running and jumping. They are part of the Italian Paralympic Athletics National Team and we lived a dream: wearing the blue colors at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. But they don’t stop chasing ever greater goals: now they dream of a medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympics (to be held from Wednesday, 28th August, 2024 to Sunday, 8th September, 2024. They are the Dream Couple.
Emanuele Di Marino is an Italian Paralympic athlete who specializes in the 400 meters and 4 x 100 meter relay. He is a double World medalist and a European champion.
Arjola Dedaj is born in Tirana, Albania, She is a blind Italian Paralympic athlete who competes in sprinting and long jump events in international level events. She was discriminated for her visual impairment which she has had since the age of three years because there were no schools in Albania that could provide her an education. She immigrated to Italy in a rubber dinghy in 1998 along with her father and brother to join her mother who was in Milan.
She and her partner Emanuele Di Marino, who is her training partner and also participates in Paralympic track and field events are referred to as “La coppia dei sogni” (“the dream couple” in Italian).
Women Fitness President Ms. Namita Nayyar in a candid interview with the dream couple of Emanuele Di Marino, an Italian Paralympic athlete who specialises in the 400 metres and 4 x 100 metre relay, a double World medalist and a European champion and Arjola Dedaj a blind Italian Paralympic winner of World Championships Gold medal in 2017 at London in Women’s long jump T11, both talks about their fitness regime, success story and future plans.
Namita Nayyar:
You were born in Salerno, Italy. Where did you have your early education? You are a T44 Paralympic athlete born with a distortion in the left leg. What motivated you to take a career in athletics? Later your career propelled you to the height where you have been at the top of the world as a Paralympic athlete winning the silver medal at the 4x100m relay in the T42-47 event and the bronze medal in the 400m T44 event at the London 2017 World Championships. Tell us more about your professional journey of exceptional hard work, tenacity, and endurance.
Emanuele Di Marino:
Hello! And thank you for having me with you. I was born in Salerno with a congenital malformation in my left leg, called club-foot. There are a few types of this malformations and mine, unfortunately, was the worst. I have to be thankful to my parents to make the difficult decision to bring me on surgery and the doctor that take care of me because without these treatments I would never been able to run and even walk! In my journey as a Paralympic athlete I often meet other guys that didn’t have the possibility to receive the treatment that I got and, in fact, they are not able to walk without wheelchair. I got my early education in Salerno where I did all my study as a teenager till my degree in law, and even become a lawyer!
Regarding my journey as an athlete, it wasn’t very easy to start because I got a lot of problem to run and to do very basic exercises. I still remember the first days and months when I was trying to Lear how to run and how to use my leg to run and do exercises some peoples that told me “why are you trying? You can maybe change sport and do swimming…”
This has been something that I have never seen as a down moment or a down pattern to me but otherwise I told to myself that one day these persons would have changed his mind. Honestly, this kind of stuffs has always gave me the fuel to my journey as a Paralympic athlete that try to follow his goals and that try to overcome his limits! These kinds of stuffs have always been a hurdle to overcome, not something that stop me!
Full Interview is Continued on Next Page
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