Project : Alternative Swimming

I’m particularly grateful for the invitation you have sent me because I believe that sharing experiences in any field and particularly in the field of disabilities, is a fundamental instrument for growth and sustainment for those who struggle to live with a physical or mental disability.
It’s moments like this, of study, reflection and suggestion that contribute to the construction of a society which is more aware, more carefull and more welcoming in the face of disability.
My contribution doesn’t come from years of study or knowledge of particular legislation. It’s simply the experience of a disabled person which permits me, with great humility, to intervene in a field, that of sport and disability, which I believe has so much to offer towards the recovery and integration of disabled people in a society which is largely built on “normality”.
When at the age of fourteen, I had to have my right leg amputated due to an osteosarcoma, the sensations I accused were mostly fear and depression. The care shown by the doctors, and enthusiasm of the rehabilitators in the prosthesis centre of Budrio, the affection of my family and above all, time, have helped me to come to terms with this new condition so that I now live my life serenely. Today I have a job, a family and I think I have fulfilled a life which has been certainly filled with obstacles and moments of discomfort, but, and this it what counts most, full also of opportunities and moments of intense emotional gain.
My only regret is that I came late to this wonderful world, inhabited by intelligent people like you who are daily concerned with creating a society dedicated to integration and sustainment.
For the last few years I’ve been involved in a Swimming Tour of Italy and a Swimming Tour of Europe. I do it because with this form of “fight” I try to intervene in a specific theme, that of the provision of prostheses for amputees. In this field, scientific and technological resarch has never stopped, and extraordinary results have been obtained including electronic prostheses able to reduce to a minimum physical problems and allowing a significantly better quality of life. Unfortunately in Italy, the list of products available from the national health service hasn’t been updated since 1992 and doesn’t therefore contemplate these state of the art prostheses which are provided only in exceptional cases and following long bureaucratic procedures.
We are gravely behind the times in this, although our country, from the point of view of legislation in the field of disability has over the years produced regulations which are really avant garde.
I hope that this initiative will produce some results. For the moment some parliamentarians have presented a question to the House and we are awaiting a response from the Government.
Today I am here because I firmly believe in the value of sport as an instrument for the recovery and integration of disabled people. And I believe this from direct experience even if, unfortunately, I arrived a little late. It was the world of sport which first listened to me, embracing my project and sustaining it with great determination. And swimming, I felt I could express myself physically, forgetting after so many years that I was without a leg and feeling sensations of lightness and total control of my body. I think that these sensations, and I speak as a total amateur, not a professional, can contribute to the recovery by disabled people, of any age, but above all young people, of those residual potentialities which otherwise wouldn’t have any way to be expressed, helping them to become more aware of their bodies and as a consequence, strengthening them emotionally. I have understood that for us disabled it’s important to “be” in the world, to try to make a difference to the process of socialization and integration and testify to the value of diversity and fight to affirm our rights.
Over the years, touring Italy and Europe, I’ve known extraordinary people who have always worked towards a society capable of connecting with everyones needs. Naturally you are among this group of people: Thank you for the opportunity you have given me and thank you for everything that you do.


Salvatore Cimmino