Michela Moioli is also standing alongside Chiara Teocchi, the MTB champion fighting like a lioness

She is one of the best athletes in Italian mountain biking, and the national team returning from the World Championships in Val di Sole dedicated the results it achieved at the home event to her (four medals, including two titles).

Chiara Teocchi is fighting like a lioness to win her battle, whose full extent only emerged today, as the champion from Bergamo posted a video on social media recounting what happened on Sunday, July 5, in La Thuile. While Martina Berta was securing a historic victory for Italy in the World Cup event, a tragedy was unfolding at the same time.

After suffering a heavy fall on one of the sections of the course in Valle d’Aosta, Teocchi was airlifted to Aosta, where a spinal cord injury was diagnosed. She subsequently underwent surgery in her home city of Bergamo, where a complication occurred in the operating room, which Chiara has now described as the cardiac arrest that struck her. Almost two months on, the Italian biker is still in a wheelchair: “I had a bad crash in La Thuile. I was taken to Aosta and then to Bergamo, where they discovered that I had suffered a spinal cord injury,” she said in the message she posted this afternoon. “Unfortunately, during the operation I had an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic medication and suffered a cardiac arrest that lasted almost an hour. Thanks to the cardiac surgery team at Bergamo hospital, I am here and I have won the most important race of my life.

“I’m feeling better now. I have a new friend and, as you can see, I’m in a wheelchair. No one knows for how long, but I’ll do everything I can to recover. It will be a long journey, which is why I decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to help me a little with the expenses. I wanted to say hello and tell you that I’m doing well, and that I’ll do everything I can to get back on my feet and perhaps back in the saddle.”

The fundraiser on the leading platform (here is the LINK) had already exceeded €7,000 within a couple of hours, against its €30,000 target. Also from Bergamo, like Teocchi, and connected to her through their shared work with the Army Sports Centre, Michela Moioli immediately stepped up for Chiara, offering concrete support to help her through the most difficult moment of her life.

An example of a truly special woman, even before being a champion.