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Veronica Yoko Plebani was just 15 years old when, on April 27, 2011, her life changed in an instant.
After spending an evening with friends, she began to feel very ill. She had a soaring fever and felt as though her body were burning from the inside out. Her mother rushed her to the hospital, where doctors discovered she was suffering from fulminant Type C bacterial meningitis.
The illness was devastating.
Veronica spent about a month and a half in intensive care and several more months hospitalized. Her injuries were so severe that doctors had to amputate parts of her fingers and toes. Her body was left covered in deep scars, particularly on her arms and legs.
When the time finally came to return home, a new fear arose: facing her friends again and worrying that they wouldn't recognize her or would look at her differently.
Her father gave her a simple piece of advice that would stay with her throughout her recovery: she could wear shorts, dress however she liked, and had no reason to hide.
Gradually, Veronica returned to sports.
She first found freedom in the water and then embarked on an extraordinary athletic career. She represented Italy in snowboarding at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics, later in canoeing at the Rio 2016 Games, and eventually discovered another great passion in paratriathlon.
At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, she won a bronze medal in the triathlon, and years later, she returned to the podium to claim the silver medal at the Paris 2024 Games.
But perhaps one of her most important victories took place far from the competition arena.
For a time, she had to adjust to the stares of others and to living in a body that had changed completely. Over the years, she decided to stop hiding her scars and began showing them openly, including in photographs and on social media. For Veronica, doing so serves a purpose: to normalize the existence of diverse bodies and help others feel represented.
She sums it up with very powerful words:
“My scars are my body, and my body is me.”
Today, Veronica doesn’t show her scars to elicit pity. She shows them because they are part of her story—of the life she survived and the body that eventually carried her to a Paralympic podium.
We sometimes think our scars are things to be hidden, when in reality, they can be proof of everything we have managed to overcome. True beauty lies not in having a perfect story, but in learning to embrace our own.
After spending an evening with friends, she began to feel very ill. She had a soaring fever and felt as though her body were burning from the inside out. Her mother rushed her to the hospital, where doctors discovered she was suffering from fulminant Type C bacterial meningitis.
The illness was devastating.
Veronica spent about a month and a half in intensive care and several more months hospitalized. Her injuries were so severe that doctors had to amputate parts of her fingers and toes. Her body was left covered in deep scars, particularly on her arms and legs.
When the time finally came to return home, a new fear arose: facing her friends again and worrying that they wouldn't recognize her or would look at her differently.
Her father gave her a simple piece of advice that would stay with her throughout her recovery: she could wear shorts, dress however she liked, and had no reason to hide.
Gradually, Veronica returned to sports.
She first found freedom in the water and then embarked on an extraordinary athletic career. She represented Italy in snowboarding at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics, later in canoeing at the Rio 2016 Games, and eventually discovered another great passion in paratriathlon.
At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, she won a bronze medal in the triathlon, and years later, she returned to the podium to claim the silver medal at the Paris 2024 Games.
But perhaps one of her most important victories took place far from the competition arena.
For a time, she had to adjust to the stares of others and to living in a body that had changed completely. Over the years, she decided to stop hiding her scars and began showing them openly, including in photographs and on social media. For Veronica, doing so serves a purpose: to normalize the existence of diverse bodies and help others feel represented.
She sums it up with very powerful words:
“My scars are my body, and my body is me.”
Today, Veronica doesn’t show her scars to elicit pity. She shows them because they are part of her story—of the life she survived and the body that eventually carried her to a Paralympic podium.
We sometimes think our scars are things to be hidden, when in reality, they can be proof of everything we have managed to overcome. True beauty lies not in having a perfect story, but in learning to embrace our own.
