Italian Paralympian Alessandro Ossola was eliminated from the men's 100m T63 heat on September 1, 2024, but that day was still special to him for another reason: He and his girlfriend Arianna got engaged. After his race, Alessandro greeted his girlfriend Arianna in the stands and surprised her by getting down on one knee and proposing to her in front of 40,000 people. Her reaction? She shouted, "You’re crazy, you’re crazy" then kissed him, Alessandro told BBC World Service.
The 36-year-old came up with the idea of proposing at the Paris 2024 Paralympics "a few weeks ago," according to an Instagram Post.
In the Instagram post, the Italian Paralympian explained how he and his now-fiancée met.
"I met her in Sanremo [Italy] in 2019 during a summer where I just wanted to be relaxed and I was not looking for anything," he said. "Life is strange. Sometimes it unbends your journey on an incredible day, even when it seems that things are not working well."
In 2015, Alessandro lost his first wife in a motorcycle accident. The accident left him with injuries and he had to have most of his left leg amputated, reported BBC.
Even though he is "a positive guy," the tragic accident made him feel like he was surrounded by "darkness" for some time, he told the outlet.
More from LittleThings: A Few Simple Words From Christopher Reeve's Wife Saved His Life After Equestrian Accident
Sports helped him find his way "out of a very dark period," he said, per Olympics.com.
"After my accident, I lost a lot — everything but my smile — but sport pushed me to smile more and more," he said, adding that the day he got disqualified might not seem "amazing" to everyone, "from a sporting perspective" at least. But Alessandro sees it differently.
"I say it was. At 36 years old, I was competing with the best in the world, and I’m really proud of that," he said, per Olympics.com.
He also has his romantic marriage proposal to look back on.
Describing Arianna as his "partner … for life," he recalled how she sometimes "believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that’s something truly amazing," per Olympics.com.
Arianna supports him "every day" and "always follows [him] during [his] competitions," he said on Instagram. He looks forward to their next chapter together.
"I have had moments in my life and this is another wonderful period that I am going to experience," he said on Instagram. "She has showed me that, day by day, over the past five years that we have been together."
