My name is Danielle Frederique Madam, I’m 23 years old and I was born in Cameroon on June 23, 1997. My parents are both Cameroonian, and after the sudden death of my father, killed in a family feud, my mother decided to bring me to Italy to give me a safer and better future. She entrusted me to an uncle who had already been living here for some time.
A few years after my arrival in Italy, that uncle also passed away, and the social services placed me in a foster home run by nuns in Pavia. At my new school, a physical education teacher noticed me, and in 2011 I began practicing shot put. I quickly became good at it, and in 2013 I achieved the qualifying standard for the World Championships. I was overjoyed, life seemed to be smiling at me at last; it finally felt like my moment.
But the cold shower came when my name did not appear on the call-up list. I was told I couldn’t represent Italy because I wasn’t Italian. Only then did I discover that I was considered a foreigner in the country where I had grown up.
That moment didn’t break me. I kept training, and over the years I managed to win five Italian national titles.
My dream has always been to become an Italian citizen so that I could join the Carabinieri.
After 17 years, Danielle finally obtained Italian citizenship on April 30, 2021.
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