In April 2011, when she was just 15 years old, Veronica Yoko Plebani contracted fulminant bacterial meningitis that nearly took her life. She spent about a month and a half in intensive care and then several more months in the hospital.
The consequences were devastating. Her injuries were so severe that doctors had to amputate some of the phalanges of her fingers and parts of her toes.
In addition, her body was covered in deep scars, especially on her arms and legs.
But after leaving the hospital, Veronica decided to return to sports. She began competing in snowboarding and made it to the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games. In Rio 2016, she competed in paracanoeing and finished sixth.
In 2017, she found a new passion in triathlon. That same year, she won the Italian Paratriathlon Championships and a World Cup event in Besançon, France.
Her greatest reward came at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, where she won the bronze medal. In Paris 2024, she returned to the podium and won silver.
Today, the marks left by that illness are still on her body, but Veronica decided not to hide them. To her, they are part of her story and also part of the person she became.
“My scars are my body, and my body is me”.