PARALYMPICS-BRAZIL/TRAINING Brazilian amputees train to compete in the 2016 Paralympic Games

Record ID: 451039

  • Title: PARALYMPICS-BRAZIL/TRAINING Brazilian amputees train to compete in the 2016 Paralympic Games
  • Date: 26th February 2015
  • Summary: CLOSE-UP OF UHELP WEBSITE SEEN ON DIAS'S LAPTOP
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1G8LPOGT3A7GBAH1B957DLUYY
  • Story Text: Three athletes in Sao Paulo are training hard to compete in the Paralympics when the Games come to their home country in 2016.
    Vicinius Goncalves Rodrigues suffered a motor cycle accident just over a year ago, in which the bones in his right leg were shattered immediately and he was amputated above the knee.
    Rodrigues was 19-years-old at the time and undergoing tests to enter into the police force, where he says he suffered prejudice against his disability.
    He was walking with a prosthetic leg in just three months and set a new goal, which is to compete in the 200 metre event in the 2016 Paralympic Games.
    "The greatest challenge is to keep up the training without giving up. When you start training you don't see the results, you don't see the rewards. We are training every day, every day and I don't see the results but it always begins that way. We are competing against ourselves," Rodrigues told Reuters during a training session on Wednesday (February 25).
    "We have to keep going, and in a few years I will achieve my dream of becoming World Champion, Olympic Champion, and I am not going to stop, I am young, 20-years-old, so I have got at least 15 years ahead as an athlete, I want to get better and better each day," Rodrigues added, keen to change popular perceptions of what people with disabilities are capable of achieving.
    Sabrina Custodia suffered a severe electric shock in which she lost her two hands, part of her right leg and the toes on her left foot.
    Custodia returned to practising sport one year and six months after the accident, and in three months she was entering competitions.
    The 23-years-old is training for the 100 and 200 meter sprints, long jump, 100 and 50 metre swimming freestyle, 100 metre backstroke, as well as for the Paratriathlon event which will be included for the first time in the 2016 Games.
    "My dream is to go to the Paralympics. That is the objective that I have put in my head and that is what I want for me, so this is what incentivises me to train every day, to run, swim, cycle, work on muscle strength. This is what I always keep in mind," Custodia said during training.
    Adriele da Silva was in a coma for 20 days after a badly treated urine infection which spread throughout her body and caused necrosis, following which she had her right leg and hands amputated.
    As a teenager, Da Silva had dreamed of competing as a gymnast in the Olympic Games, but later turned her focus to studying engineering.
    Now using prosthetic limbs on both legs, Da Silva decided she would set her mind to achieving everything she had dreamed of, including competing in the Paratriathlon event and roller-blading.
    "I was always motivated by competition, especially in sport, and now after having lost my feet I have seen that there are a lot of opportunities in Paralympic sports, and now that the Olympics are going to be held here as well, we have been faced with so many opportunities," Da Silva said.
    The dedication and talent of the three athletes, who train in public gyms in Sao Paulo without any sponsorship, was recognised by the initiative UHelp.com, which hopes to support their training programmes through a novel crowd-funding campaign.
    UHelp is an online platform which presents several stories of people and projects seeking financial support for a particular cause. Viewers can chose to donate to a particular cause, or vote for which one should receive resources generated by the initiative itself.
    As director of the initiative Vanessa Dias explains, the platform is both a way to generate financial resources from a wide base, as well as a form of spreading a message and a story.
    "What we propose to do initially is to create the concept, to share the vision of how important it is to support one of these stories, and at the same time show that these people are able to continue in their day to day and achieve their goals of competing at the Paralympics," Dias told Reuters.
    Rodrigues, Custodia and Da Silva are amongst eight athletes, six women and two men, whose stories are being promoted and supported through the website, and who aim to keep the medals in Brazil in 2016.
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