Italian sprinter Alessandro Ossola may have missed out on a Paralympic medal, but he will leave Paris with something even more precious after his girlfriend accepted his marriage proposal in front of thousands of fans at the Stade de France.
Although Ossola failed to reach the final of the T63 100 meters, he ran over to his girlfriend Arianna and asked her to marry him.
"She answered me 'You're crazy, you're crazy' and she kissed me, so it was exciting really," he said in an interview with the BBC World Service.
Ossola lost most of his left leg after a motorcycle accident in 2015, which also killed his first wife, leaving him surrounded by "darkness."
"I'm a positive guy but at the beginning it was a hard time. But sports helped me exit this darkness, this turmoil. It's a long journey, now I'm here smiling," he commented.
"I was unlucky, I didn't achieve the final and I was really sad about it. But after three minutes, you know life is strange, I was really happy," said the runner, who had been planning the proposal for a month.
"I bought the ring, then I gave it to my friend to bring to me," he explained.
The 36-year-old also highlighted just what the Paralympics mean to competitors.
"I don't like when the people say 'You are disabled, ah, you are going to Paralympics. It's not like that. You are going to the Paralympics if you are one of the best athletes in the world. This is why I am proud to be here," explained Ossola, still happy that Arianna accepted his proposal.
"The Paralympics is like an amazing contest, an amazing place to do it and she was so beautiful."
"We love Paris and Paris - the city of love - was the right city to ask her to be my wife," he concluded.
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