Photograph by Anthony Devlin
For Particular Olympics Nice Britain determine skater Stephanie Gott, the World Winter Video games Turin 2025 holds extraordinary significance, not simply as an athlete however as somebody whose life started with a battle towards the percentages.
Italy is the house nation of Dr. Marco Pozzi, the surgeon who saved Stephanie’s life when she was simply 10 days outdated.
Born with a congenital coronary heart defect, Stephanie underwent life-saving open-heart surgical procedure as a new child. “Because of him, I’m right here as we speak,” she mentioned of Dr. Pozzi. “I really feel the happiest for being again within the nation of the one who saved my life.”
From a child preventing for survival to a assured athlete gliding throughout the ice, Stephanie stands as a shining instance of resilience. Now 29, she is returning to the nation the place her journey started, this time not as a affected person however as a world-class athlete. From 8 to fifteen March 2025, she shall be amongst 1,500 athletes from over 100 international locations competing on the Particular Olympics World Winter Video games Turin 2025—the world’s largest sports activities and humanitarian occasion.
Stephanie’s story is a part of the ‘Have a good time the Distinctive’ marketing campaign, supported by Toyota Motor Europe and UPS, a visible and narrative venture designed to highlight eight distinctive Particular Olympics winter athletes representing their international locations on the World Winter Video games Turin 2025.
Photograph by Anthony Devlin
Stephanie’s father, Mark Gott, displays on her outstanding journey: “I’m very proud; she does wonderful. For what she’s come by way of in her life… I do cry typically on the considered what she’s performed. It proves that anybody with studying disabilities can get on the ice.”
Her introduction to determine skating got here at a time when she wanted it most. “I used to be bullied at college as a result of I used to be completely different,” Stephanie recalled. “Folks used to take the mick out of my arms and my legs.” However a household outing to an ice rink modified every little thing. Although “clumsy like Bambi at first,” she laughed—Stephanie fell in love with skating. For her 14th birthday, she obtained classes, and he or she hasn’t seemed again since.
Stephanie has already skilled the enjoyment of competing on Italian ice, having participated within the Particular Olympics Nice Britain Nationwide Winter Video games in Folgaria, early in 2024.
Now, she spends three hours a day on the ice forward of Turin 2025, pouring her coronary heart and soul right into a sport that has given her freedom and confidence. “I be happy as a butterfly,” mentioned Stephanie, who took bronze on the World Winter Video games Austria 2017. “Not the timid woman I used to be after I was actually little. Folks deal with me in a different way than earlier than.”
However her journey as an athlete hasn’t been with out its challenges. As a stroke survivor, Stephanie has needed to work tougher than most to be taught the intricate strikes of determine skating.
“Due to the stroke, issues don’t go in my head as simply,” she defined. “They’ll say, ‘We’ll do the three turns as we speak, we’ll add extra subsequent week.’ So, we maintain going till it goes in.”
Regardless of this, her dedication has solely fueled her progress as each a skater and an individual.
Photograph by Anthony Devlin
The determine skating competitors will happen between 11 and 14 March on the Palasport Tazzoli in Torino, Italy.
The Particular Olympics World Winter Video games Turin 2025 shall be held in Italy from 8 – 15 March, with over 1,500 athletes from greater than 100 international locations competing throughout eight sports activities: alpine snowboarding, cross-country snowboarding, dance sport, determine skating, floorball, quick observe velocity skating, snowboard, snowshoeing.
