diFloriana Rullo
She is 46 years old, a psychotherapist and deals with addictions. But it was climbing that changed her life
“With paraclimbing I learned to fly. My dream? The Los Angeles Paralympics.” Determination. Courage and the desire to get involved. These are the watchwords of Cocchi Flame: 46 years old, psychotherapist from Florence, she deals with addictions, but above all she is a para-athlete, already considered the queen of climbing.
Having joined the Italian national team with Fasi in less than a year since she started, she has already achieved second place at the European Championships in Villars. And, while in Paris the Italian athletes are winning medals and breaking records, she can’t wait for 2028 to arrive. “I have lived with a malformation in my left leg since birth, but until 2014, almost no one knew anything about my prosthesis. I have undergone dozens of operations,” says Cocchi. “I have always practiced swimming, the only place where I felt free. Outside the pool, however, I have always had a difficult relationship with my body. I didn’t show my leg without the prosthesis. I have not been bullied, but I have always struggled to talk about my malformation.” Fiamma’s life has been half-lived, spent hiding from others so as not to have to give explanations. “Everything changed in 2014,” says the paraclimber. “I participated in my first camp, organized by Roberto Bruzzonefor kids with prosthetics. I started to see sport as inclusive and discovered sides of myself that I didn’t know. And I started climbing. A whole new world opened up to me. My handicap was the same but I no longer saw it as a problem.”
From that moment on for Cocchi Flame changes everything. «With paraclimbing I learned to fly. The first time I didn’t take off the prosthesis, I was ashamed to show my disability – explains the athlete -. Then I took part in a stage of Italian Cup. The turning point. They told me there would be a chance to join the national team. But there was a problem: to do so I would have to remove my prosthesis.” A difficult request to fulfill.
“It was unthinkable. Like training without clothes,” admits the para-athlete. “I was embarrassed just by the idea. Then I tried.” Today Fiamma has made peace with her body.
“In addition to being a woman and a mother, I am an athlete,” she says proudly. “I have changed my rhythms, I am at peace with myself.” The first fruits have already arrived: second place at the European Championships.
“It was an indescribable emotion. It was the first time I competed with women of my same category,” she says. “I put myself on the line.” And now, while she watches her classmates on TV National overcome their limits, she also dreams of “wearing the blue jersey. Seeing people with physical disabilities climbing 20 meters above the ground seems inconceivable but it’s magical” she explains proudly. But first there is another appointment: the stage of the World Cup that will be held in Arch of Trento on September 27th where “I’m ready to fly on the wall to try to get on the podium again.”