Beatrice 'Bebe' Vio vowed to bounce back after having to settle for third place in the women's individual foil category B on Wednesday.

The popular Paralympian, who stars on the Netflix documentary ‘Rising Phoenix’and had to have all four limbs amputated when she contracted meningitis at the age of 11 and now uses prosthetic arms, beat Cho Eun-hye of South Korea 15-2 to take bronze, after earlier suffering a shock defeat in the semi-final against a Xiao Rong.

The stunner upset her at first, but Vio regained her composure short after. "A lot, it's worth a lot, it's beautiful, I'm really really happy," said Vio when asked what the bronze medal was worth to her. "It's a medal won, it's a great thing, you should never give up on a medal, absolutely."

Vio, 27, won gold in the individual foil at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 but she could only claim bronze in Paris after she surprisingly lost in the semi-finals in one of the biggest suprises of the Games so far. Afterwards, she said she hoped Xiao would win the final, but she did not get her wish as Thailand's Saysunee Jana bested the Chinese fencer to claim gold.

Nonetheless, the Italian already has her eye on revenge should Italy face China in Thursday's team semi-final. "Tomorrow (Thursday) we'll make it again, I mean tomorrow we have to make it, at this point it's OK for the Chinese to win once, but not twice. So tomorrow we have the Chinese in the semi-finals again, the team, and we're going for it, in short."

In the morning session, Italy beat the USA in the quarter-finals. This is Vio's last chance to win gold in Paris and improve on the Italian team's silver medal performance at Tokyo.

She kickstarted the night session under the ornate glass-dome roof of the Grand Palais with her bronze medal victory. Vio's every score was loudly celebrated by the Italian contingent watching form the stands and she wasted little time in rounding off the action in what was a disappointing day overall for the fencing icon. "You know, if it hadn't been for all the guys, the trainers, really, my friends, my family, they were all there, they were so ready to cheer me up and tell me not to give up," said Vio of her up-and-down day.

She had previously failed in her defence of her title as she went down 15-9 in her semi-final against Xiao. "She (Xiao) deserved it more, she was better, she was more there with her head, she was more there with her body, with everything," said Vio, speaking after her bronze medal match. "I was there, but not as good as her."

The duel at the Grand Palais was briefly paused at 1-1 to resolve some technical issues with the duellists, before Xiao swiftly stole into a surprise 4-1 lead.

She soon extended her lead to 6-1 over the reigning champion, who seemed to be finding it difficult to get into her rhythm. Hit by hit, Vio got herself back into the duel and narrowed the gap to 13-8. But Xiao held on to stun the favourite and qualify for the final.

A visibly-upset Vio then ensured her place in the bronze medal match less than an hour after her loss by racing through the round four repechage 15-7 against China's Kang Su.