My name is Denis and I have Moldavian roots. I emigrated with my mother to Italy when I was 14 years old.  After I arrived, to feel part of the community, I decided to participate in school sports. The radicalization that I felt immediately concerns two aspects of my life: my disability and racism for my origins.

I suffer from a disability since birth. I have a limb that has not developed due to the radiation from Chernobyl because I come from a city that is not far from where the nuclear explosion happened in 1986, Soroka. I never thought it was a problem because in Moldova nobody ever made fun of me. I have always done everything and drive the car since I was 16 years old. Even my features have created situations of racism because here I am exchanged for a Moroccan. In order not to feel excluded, I decided to practice the sport that I like, and I dedicated myself to running with the school’s athletics team.

Like any teenage boy, I was interested and looked at the girls. During athletic training I approached a group of girls who were training. Among them there was a girl that I liked a lot, so I tried to approach her while we ran but she in front of her group of friends she told me: “How disgusting you are with that arm!! do you really think I can like it?
Get out Grebo!” (“Grebo” is an appellation often used offensively against people of Maghreb origins)

I felt bad, all my certainties were canceled. I had never felt disabled, but that girl managed to make me feel a nobody. I did not want to be part of the athletics team anymore. So, at the end of the school year I informed the coach that I had decided to give up. At that point I explained to the coach what had happened and although he wanted to convince me, I stopped.

I was not able to handle that situation. I looked for support in friends, I still spoke bad Italian, so I turned to my family to feel accepted.
From there I started to practice another sport and despite my disability I gave excellent results. I took all my anger and I turned it into a skill and I succeeded. I became a one-handed volleyball player. My teammates did not believe I could play well but I did.

Today, a lot of time has passed. I no longer play volleyball, I play in an amateur football team made up of almost all foreigners. There are few Italians, we are all friends and we make fun of each other. Surely here there can be no episodes of racism because we understand each other. To anyone who happens to be discriminated, I say not to give up. Look for the sport that makes you feel good and continue.

Today I am married and with my wife we have two young children.
I think we need to start practicing sport from an early age because that is the only way we can eliminate racism. They do not see the differences we adults see and they can be better people.