23.06.2020

Athletes talk about their path in the Paralympic sports

To end the “Optional Activities Cycle of Lectures” in a very special way, Beacon welcomed the athletes Alex Gomes Alves and Caio Namias. The conversation aimed to explain the concept of Paralympic athletics, its difficulties and show that it is possible to overcome limitations.

The chat started with Alex talking about his history and trajectory in the sport. The athlete said that until he was 16, he walked normally and did not need to use crutches or a wheelchair, but then he had to change his life overnight and today he believes it was for the best. “Life is overcoming. When I became disabled, I saw everything on the negative side and now I see it only on the positive side”. In the beginning, his relationship with the sport was not easy, but then it became overcoming, a joy. He says that at first, there were several good players and he thought he didn’t want to be just one more.

Soon after, Caio talked about his transition from athlete to teacher, from the base categories and high schools to high performance sports. He confessed that the reason he was interested and fell in love with the paralympic games was the stories of each athlete and the way each one excelled. “It was passion at first sight, when I first got to know the sport, I immediately fell in love and thought I needed to work with those guys.”

Both explained the differences in the paralympic basketball and volleyball rules, enhancing that there are more similarities than we can imagine. Alex commented that the only difference is that the selection of team members is made in an heterogenous way, formed by athletes with different levels and types of physical disabilities, and that each player has a different punctuation according to the disability, where all teams need 14 points in total. Caio added by talking about the routine and the process, both physical and psychological, for the preparation of athletes for the paralympics. “The allowance was low and we had no assistance. It was very difficult at first, because they were all amputated and sometimes they didn’t feel like athletes themselves, just disabled. ”

During the Live, Alex shared moments in which he had to rise up and move forward, moments in which he had to reflect about his life and how the wheelchair basketball was a way of escape to him and that, in the end, became one of his biggest passions. “ “I realized that no matter how disabled you are, nothing is impossible. When my friends offer me help and I refuse, I just tell them: Today you’re here, but what about tomorrow? We need to learn how to adapt and develop,” says the athlete, emphasizing on how our problems can be minimal and that in order to overcome them it is necessary to impose objectives and goals in our lives.

When asked about the Paralympic Games, Caio praises Brazil as a paralympic power and our training center as a world reference. He says the competition is like a dream coming true: “You wake up, have lunch and dinner breathing sports. You get access to people from all over the world and interact with them”. However, he declares that the sport in Brazil is very difficult, that they need to be warriors besides being athletes. Sponsorships for paralympic sports are not long term and usually last about 1 or 2 years. He also explains that all federations have the right to use the training center and that they can choose days to conduct training. “I usually say that life is like that, there are times that we want to drop everything. But we hold on to that little bit of hope. We never lose, we either win or we learn,” Alex concludes.