Lusus paralympics praise improved conditions for high performance

Cgathered to talk about their courses at the ASPC European Forum – Association of Sport Performance Centres (Association of High Income Centers), which until Friday takes place in that municipality of the district of Santarém, Carla Oliveira, David Grachat and Norberto Mourão expressed satisfaction by younger athletes, such as the swimmer Diogo Cancela – bronze in Paris2024 and also present in Rio Maior -, have other conditions to prepare.

“ I am from the time I almost paid to go to internships and to compete [for Portugal]. It's not the reality of today anymore. Makes a lot of money these days being an athlete. I earn more as an athlete than as a professional”, revealed Carla Oliveira, who has already won by the national team gold, silver and bronze medals in Europeans and World Cups of boccia.

Paralympic atelta, who moves in a wheelchair due to a rare neuromuscular disease, says that when she talks about what she went through with her younger fellow athletes, “they don’t understand” what she says, which makes her “more calm” about the work being done: “I feel that our athletes have more and more conditions. It was a very long journey”.

This change of attitude towards the adapted sport also allowed the paracanoist Norberto Mourão, who lost his legs in an accident, to win gold medals for Portugal in Europeans, silver and bronze in Worlds and a bronze at the Tokyo Games2020.

“ At a time when the club that represented ended the modalities, a solution had to be created”, which led him to live in the residence of the High Income Center of Montemor-o-Velho.

Mourão “trained there all week and returned home on the weekend”, making many kilometers between that municipality of Coimbra district and the residence, first Lisbon and then Vila Real, between 2017 and 2022.

This change of life and investment in preparation “made all the difference,” he acknowledges, because his “evolution was so great that it made him want new opportunities and fueled the prospect of going to the Paralympic Games”.

Among the difficult moments they had, swimmer David Grachat recalled, thrilled, one in particular:

“I never thought about post-career. I studied, tried to reconcile studies with training, but I came across a very hard reality when I stopped competing ", told in Rio Maior.

During the covid-19 pandemic, when he was already working, “green receipts”, he was out of a job. He knocked on several doors and they all closed.

“The transition from the sports career to the labor market was hard. It is a step that still haunts me and I have not yet completely mourned”, said the former swimmer, who today works as a specialist technician in the office of the Secretary of State for Sport.

In common, everyone regrets the lack of recognition and visibility, especially in the media.

“ We have the same results as a normal athlete, but we have the whole story behind us, of overcoming. People also like to see this, to feel a little sorry for feeling good. The human being is even so,” said Diogo Cancela, trying to “steal” journalists present to follow more the adapted sport.

Carla Oliveira asked not to look at athletes “nor as poor people, nor as superheroes”.

“ We want to be seen as athletes who train who work. I'm a two-time European champion and there's been little news about it. I am more than a wheelchair”, he stressed.