By RJ Mitchell
To those of us of a certain vintage the words “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man…” are simply unforgettable.
They relate to ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ TV series which was the biggest of the mid-1970s and of course revolved around the adventures of Steve Austin: The Bionic Man.
Now, 44 years later, the world of padel has its very own Bionic Man and his name is Alessandro Ossola.
From a life-changing tragedy Alessandro has built an organisation called Bionic People which is rewriting the rule book for people with artificial or prosthetic limbs on just what is possible with padel.
Yet Alessandro’s story, which has spawned this brilliant initiative, starts with tragedy.
For it was borne from the death of his dear wife and the loss of the majority of his left leg in a motorbike accident on August 29, 2015.
Despite admitting in a typically understated fashion to the dark times that followed, Alessandro was to rebuild himself mentally while the surgeons got to work on his ruined limb and ultimately replaced it with a prosthetic joint that was amazingly to allow him to represent Italy at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
It was after that momentous achievement had been completed that Alessandro found himself viewing padel as the perfect sport for those similarly stricken to rebound into action in the warm embrace and camaraderie of the sporting world.
“I was married and living a normal life with a lot of sport and I loved to play soccer and volleyball but on the 29th August 2015, everything changed,” said Alessandro.
He continued: “I had a bad motorbike accident and in this I lost my wife and my left leg too and of course it was a very difficult period and the darkest moments of my life but after a difficult period I chose to rise up again.
“I started athletics and eventually I was able to compete at a very high level starting from the Italian National Championship to the European Championships and then I was able to compete at the Paralympics in Tokyo which was amazing.
“When I came back from the Paralympics I was happy to achieve this target but I wanted to help other people in similar situations to me to do something special in their lives. So I founded an association in 2019 composed with people who suffer disability who have prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and so on called Bionic People.
“With Bionic People, we created a lot of projects to build awareness in schools, students from elementary schools to university and have spoken with more than 30,000 students in Italy, France, and Switzerland.
“Also we have worked with a lot of big businesses and I have had the opportunity to work with Adecco and with a lot of big brands in Italy and other countries and I began to understand that playing padel could change everything.”
But Bionic People was soon to contribute to the birth of another organisation – also founded by Alessandro – whose aim was to promote the inclusion of disabled athletes through padel: “In December 2021 I had started to play padel and I realised then that even although I had a disability I could play and I tried to put a lot of energy into a new project and we called it ‘Inclusive Padel’.”
“Everything in this championship revolves around a non-disability person playing with a disabled person and I think it’s amazing. People talk about disability and inclusion but in the end they are not going to do something specific. In this way we can realise a lot of projects with someone with a disability and people without one and do it all with them together and this is fantastic.
“We started the tour and we have just completed a second stop in Turin, which is my city, and one on September 11 in Milan, then 24th September is in Naples and we finish it in Rome on November 12.
“The structure is easy. You need say 10 people with disability and then find a team-mate who can play with them, it is two groups, they all play each other, and the leading teams play semis and final for a cup.
“Every event has music and people who have fun as this is, I believe, the spirit of padel. It is just the beginning for Inclusive Padel but in Europe they are building other similar movements and we will try to join it all up in a big event in with players from France, Italy, Spain in Monte Carlo on 21/22 of October.
“But it is crazy in Italy. They are growing up courts in every city. Anyone can play padel as it is totally easy where tennis is not. You don’t need to have a good technique to play padel or have the perfect body shape, you can play and enjoy it easily.
“So, my message is that if you have a disability like a prosthetic leg or you are in a wheelchair why not try to do padel as it can be the most inclusive sport ever.”
Yet Alessandro’s ambitions for padel do not end with Inclusive Padel and he explained: “I hope we will try to realise a paralympic movement of the padel but before this we would like to maintain both categories. The Inclusive Padel is something correct and it sends a huge message: ‘We can play together.’
“At a time when it is crazy with war, hunger, climate change those with disability can play with those who are not disabled and this is a strong message and we want to create a bigger and bigger movement.
“It will probably need a few years to reach the Paralympics but maybe in four or five years we will have 400 maybe 500 players and I am sure that ex-football players will help us to share this message that it is possible to play with disability and that it is easy.
“In Italy we have many ex-footballers starting to play padel, of course like Francesco Totti, the Roma legend, and I was lucky enough to play with him in Pescara and it was an amazing experience to play with a great like Totti!
“We have some other ex-footballers who have a club and for example in Milan we will play at the Tolcinastco Club and this is the next stop on our tour and the owners are Nicola Amoruso who played with Juventus and Alessandro Budel who is another ex-footballer and they have a club with four courts.”
“So I hope we can create something very special in the next few years.”
Yet there is no denying that the loss of a leg is a serious disability to overcome even in respect of padel and Alessandro was candid in revealing the obstacles he has had to overcome to get on court: “It depends if you have had the knee off or not. If you don’t have the knee but you have a very good device then the prosthetic device can cost a lot, maybe 80,000 Euros, which is crazy, but if you have something as good as this then you can quite easily play.
“If not of that quality it is a bit more difficult but not impossible. The difficulty is when you have to go fast forward to the net or backward to the wall but it is possible with the rebound just as it is if you are not disabled.
“In my case I do not feel so much pain either during or after but sometimes you have difficulties with maybe the other leg or with your back when they are perhaps compensating and it can be some pain.
“When I started to play golf it was very difficult as balance is everything and if you don’t have a good balance you have a problem, so with the prosthetic leg if you repeat the gesture 20,000 times your balance will improve and in padel it is the same.”
