C.‘it is Etna with its expanses of dark lava that acts as a natural set at the first takes of The winning hit. And it couldn’t be otherwise. The TV film tells the story of a son of Etna: the fencer Paolo Pizzo (interpreted by Alessio Vassallo). Two-time world champion in individual swordplay in 2011 and 2017, Olympic team silver in Rio 2016, Paolo Pizzo, even before his victories on the platform, he had already given his most important thrust. A challenge in which there was much more than a medal at stake, but life: a brain tumor, diagnosed at the age of 14 and defeated.
Alessio Vassallo and Flavio Insinna on the set of “A winning jab”. (Photo Adolfo Franzò – Press Office)
The winning hitthe tv movie with Alessio Vassallo
Produced by Anele in collaboration with Rai Fiction, The winning hit is freely inspired by the homonymous lautobiographical ibro written by Pizzo with the journalist Maurizio Nicita. The fiction will retrace the life of the champion through flashbacks in 2023 it will turn 40going back to childhood, to cancer, and then to reach the most prestigious achievement – assault after assault – right in his Catania, home of the 2011 World Fencing Championships, in which Pizzo (28 years old), conquered the highest step top of the podium in the individual sword.
To give the champion’s face is the Sicilian actor Alessio Vassalloknown to have been Luca Zingaretti’s alter ego The young Montalbano. Next to him, Flavio Insinna: in the role of his father Piero, who was Paolo’s first coach.
The story of exemplary courage
That of Paolo Pizzo is a story of courage that is part of one of the new story lines that Rai Fiction is developing with Anele and, in this case, with the patronage of CONI and the Italian Fencing Federation. «We want to propose figures of sports champions who leave testimony of dedication and commitment which goes beyond its own individuality by expressing values that affect everyone », explained the director of Rai Fiction, Maria Pia Ammirati.
Who is Paolo Pizzo
Born in Catania in 1983, Paolo Pizzo was born into a sports family. His father Piero, his first coach and in turn a fencer, is the son of Paolo and Liliana Pizzo, two legends of sport from Etna and beyond. Grandfather Paolo was a swimmer, volleyball player, freediver and fencer. Nonna Liliana, who passed away in June 2020, coached volleyball teams until she was 80. In her youth she was a champion of swimming and discus throwing.
As a coach led Alidea Catania to win the women’s tricolor in 1980. In that team, Paolo’s two aunts, Tiziana and Donatella, played. Today he is a happy husband and dad. He is married to Lavinia Bonesso, a former pentathlon blue to whom he asked for his hand while she was on the platform for a competition, he is the father of two girls Elena and Nicole. He is also a mental coach and in the gold of Elena Micheli he has recently won the world gold of modern pentathlon there is also his paw.
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