Carlo Calcagni disappointed and bitter: "Inner strength and world records but I get ignored"

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Carlo Calcagni, a colonel in the Honor Roll of the Italian Army, is a Paralympic athlete of the highest caliber who continues to win world and national records, proudly carrying the Italian flag higher and higher. In an official note, he shared all his deep bitterness.

“With sincere respect, I read about the nomination as Cavaliere della Repubblica conferred on young Marta Russo by President Sergio Mattarella for her inner strength. A just, dutiful choice that honors those who do not give up, despite everything,” he began.

“But then I ask you – he added – how much is the inner strength of someone who was contaminated by as many as 28 heavy metals, including radioactive Uranium, Thorium and Cesium, during an international NATO peacekeeping mission under the auspices of the United Nations worth? How much is daily resistance worth against chronic, degenerative and irreversible polyneuropathy with sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease? How much is the will of those, victims of duty, service amputees, transplanted and dialyzed, with MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, chronic hepatopathy, pulmonary fibrosis with respiratory failure, dozens of surgeries, recurrent septicemia, worth, continue to save and inspire lives, everywhere?”

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“I have contracted all this “serving” the state, in the name of peace and life– the champion’s conclusion -. Yet, for years, no honors. No Gold Collar, despite 15 world records and 4 world titles in the last year alone. Why? Why am I excluded, ignored, forgotten? Why is it that in the sports world they reward those who have won a single world title … but ignore objective, extraordinary results of those who have given everything, never asking for anything in return? Why am I the living testimony to an inconvenient truth? I do not hold a grudge, but I shout out loud, I demand that the real truth emerge, I fight every day for those who have no voice.”

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