MADRID, 17 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish swimmer Teresa Perales is clear that she is now trying to “understand and enjoy the path” that must take her to the Paralympic Games in Paris, a new challenge in her sporting career marked by a forced change of class to swim with only one arm. something that he does “quite well” and for which his performance in the last World Cup has been a reinforcement despite not winning a medal for the first time in 25 years.
The Zaragoza native, a Paralympian since Sydney 2000, an event since which she has won 27 medals in the Games, has had to go down from class S5 to S2, due to the impossibility of swimming with her left arm, but she still added two fourth places ( 50 and 100 backstroke) at the World Championships in Manchester (England) last summer that have strengthened his spirit.
“Yes, now it’s more about enjoying the path, understanding that the path is also a gift and that not everyone has the opportunity to get there. What for me has been a surprise, that it is a fourth and wanting to get into medals, For others, perhaps it is the best result of their lives,” Teresa Perales told Europa Press.
The Aragonese is “very aware of what it means” what she is currently doing and warns that she still has “almost a year left to enjoy, to learn and to try to do it as best as possible.” “And of course to fight with all my soul for that dream of getting back on the podium,” she stressed.
The winner of 27 Paralympic medals, who wears a watch that tells her how many days she has left until the Paris event, returned from the Manchester World Cup with a good feeling, despite not having been on the podium. “You have to always stay with the positive part. I don’t want to lie, of course I wanted to win and I was going to try, but you also have to be aware that I had only been moving my left arm for three months. So it was already, not touching, it was bite the miracle and try to get the medal,” he confessed.
“It is the first time in 25 years that I have returned without a medal, but it is also true that I scratched quite a few seconds, I lowered a lot, a lot, a lot of the marks I had been making during the year after stopping moving my arm. But the thing is that “This is what it is, I can’t change it, and now what I have to do is improve with what I have and try to learn,” Perales added.
But, this is not easy”. “In the end it is deprogramming your brain, relearning new things, and already in my life there are also many changes, not only in the water part, in the outside part because it is not the same to move both arms as just one, but I handle it quite well because I have the door there in Paris,” he remarked.
The most important thing for the Zaragoza from the last championship was also that it was seen that she was still “in the competition” and “enjoying it a lot.” “Every time she entered the starting chamber she told me: Why am I still here? Deep down it was like going with the medal already on, although I really wanted the medal,” the swimmer explained.
“FORTUNELY I HAVE LIVED A LOT OF CHANGE”
Furthermore, Teresa Perales has revived her Paralympic dream after being “on vacation” in the French capital. “I was already seeing the villa and the pool from the outside, and the ‘worm’ was already inside me,” she pointed out, knowing that the Opening Ceremony planned by the organizers will be groundbreaking. “I was doing the route from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde, I know perfectly well how everything is going to be. Paris is a city that I have always liked very much, I got engaged there, so I am very fond of it. I usually go also often and I hope to be able to enjoy some extraordinary Games,” he wished.
The woman from Zaragoza made these statements after attending the premiere of the first chapter of the documentary series ‘Power’, by Fundación Sanitas, which will be broadcast by ‘Prime Video’ and which talks about the power of inclusion in sport, an aspect that she has experienced very closely and At different times.
“I have lived through many stages and fortunately I have experienced a lot of change, a lot of change in society, in the way it is perceived and in the way we all already talk about inclusive sport and have it integrated,” he said.
Furthermore, Perales believes that the format chosen for the series, of three chapters that will be broadcast little by little, makes the message reach “better.” “They also do it from a tremendously positive point of view, as we all are, really. It is very positive, very kind and also very real because there is a reality that we cannot forget and that is that some have disabilities, others do not, but the good thing is that we can all practice sports and we can also practice it together,” he stressed.