Speaker

ONEY TAPIA (I)

Paralympic discus thrower

Keynote talk : Sowing seeds for the future

Oney Tapia was born on 27 February 1976 in Havana. In 2002, the Cuban baseball player came to Italy, where he successfully played for the teams Old Rags Lodi and Montorio Veronese. Not long after, he also started playing rugby. He earned his money by working as a gardener. While working as a gardener, he had an incident in 2011 that changed his life forever. Oney Tapia was hit on the head by a branch and lost his eyesight.

Nonetheless, the young athlete did not give up and started playing goalball and torball with the Oero Runners Bergamo team and approached Paralympic athletics in 2013. After winning numerous medals at European championships and world championships, on 23August 2018 he managed to win the gold medal in discus throwing F11 at the European championship in Berlin and set a new world record with 46.07 metres. He had already won the hearts of his fellow citizens in 2017, when he participated at the Italian version of the TV show “Dancing with the Stars”, winning the competition alongside his professional dancing partner Veera Kinnunen.

MATTHIAS STEINER (A)

Former weightlifter, Olympic champion, European and world champion

Keynote talk : Pull, push, fight – the tough way to the top

Matthias Steiner was born in 1982 in Vienna and started weightlifting at an early age. Soon he became an Austrian weightlifting prospect. Love took the young Austrian to Germany. His road to the top was often filled with obstacles. After his naturalisation in 2008, he became the Olympic superheavyweight champion (+105 kg) during the same year (he held the photo of his wife who had passed away in his hand) and European champion as well as world champion in 2010.

In 2013, after his weightlifting career was over, he founded his own business “Steinertainment GmbH”. Now a proud father, he works as a fitness coach and nutrition coach, writes books about nutrition and physical exercise and gives speeches about his life story, sports and the tough way to the top.

Presenter

HANS PETER STAUBER (A)

Hans-Peter Stauber is an experienced television journalist and producer. Since 2011, he has been responsible for the Austrian TV show “Bergwelten”, broadcast on ServusTV, the channel founded by Red Bull Media House. Stauber tells stories about people and their relationships with the mountains. His films tell the stories of mountaineers and their adventures in Europe and worldwide.

ERICA KIRCHEIS (I)

Erica Kircheis was born in Milan but has German blood flowing through her veins. She has been working in the communication and tourism sector for more than twenty years. A few years ago she moved to South Tyrol with her family and got in touch with the KIKU Sports Academy almost by chance. This encounter enabled her to get closer to the world of sport and gave her the opportunity to meet athletes and exceptional people.

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