MADRID, Jan. 14 (SportsFinding) –
Paralympic athlete Lia Beel confessed that the Tokyo Paralympic Games that will be held this year between August and September are “the best” that could happen to her this year and that is why they are the “main objective” of the Burgos, along with the Championship of Europe where he wants to revalidate his title in 200 meters.
“Going back to some Games, like I was in Rio, would be very important. It is the biggest competition of an athlete. I dedicate myself professionally to sports, because I work as a physiotherapist.
Sport is very important to me and that's why the Games is the best thing that could happen to me this year, but winning the European Championship is also very important, “Beel acknowledged in the presentation of the 'Blindgol' campaign promoted by 'Naturhouse'.
The athlete, who suffers visual impairment and who hung the gold medal at the Adapted European Championship held in Berlin in 2018, will try to revalidate the title in June, then fight in the Olympic Games and stay again “in the top ten ” of the world. “In the last World Cup I was seventh and I would like to repeat it,” he admitted.
In addition, the Burgos said that the atmosphere of the Games is “totally different from any competition”, where everything rises to the “nth power.” “You go to a European, to a World Cup and it is very good, you enjoy competing, but in the Games it is different,” he reiterated.
“In the end you live in a Villa, not in a hotel like in the other championships, and you are with all athletes of all disabilities and all sports. This allows you to meet many very good people and very different from all sports I really enjoyed Rio in the saddle basketball final because I had seen them there, train, and enjoy a sport that is not yours, “he explained.
The Spanish athlete stars in the sensitization campaign promoted by 'Naturhouse', 'Blindgol', which aims to “make paralympic sport visible” through football. “The projects of inclusion in the sport are super important. I am very good with balls, but it is something different, in my day to day I train in another way, I do not do football, but the truth is that it is fun,” he admitted.
“My disability has been since I was born, but it is a degenerative disease, so I saw more before and I have lost sight. I have always played sports, I fell into athletics, but I think that any sport is important and much more for people with disability, “he explained.
In this sense, the athlete said that “any person with disabilities is prepared to practice sports, since any sport is adaptable.” “I am an athlete, I compete and I have competed in Games, in the World Championship and I am a European champion. I love athletics, but any sport can be done with disabilities,” he added.
“I would tell society to dare to do this campaign so much as to approach people with disabilities. There are times when I ask in the street and people do not answer me and I get angry because talking to me is the same as talking to another person. We have to take ourselves as people, not as people with disabilities. Something happens to everyone, so we are all equal, “he concluded.