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Alberto Abarza not nothing five months ago. The Pan American champion and National Sports Award winner returned to Chile in March this year after a long period of training in Europe. The pandemic broke out and he was stranded in a sea of doubts. Today he is in danger, in addition to his preparation for Tokyo 2021, your health.
And it is that this Paralympic swimmer suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, a disease that steals his breath every minute. Swimming, his specialty, is a fundamental therapy to stop his ailments a little. However, if you don’t exercise, and even if it sounds cold, you will die.
Alberto is one of the qualifiers for the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games. He needs to train to prepare for this event and also to survive. Has resorted to Paralympic Committee seeking help, which has not yet arrived due to the problems that exist due to the coronavirus.
This Chilean champion is also in the high-risk group due to his illness, which makes a possible permit to train even more difficult. In conversation with BioBioChile, He confessed that his doctor clarified that he can go back to a pool. There is the desire, but only the management of the authorities is missing.
“I depend on exercise to stay alive”
“I went to train in October until March with my means. Due to the social unrest, they had closed the pool. At that moment I understood the position of the Paralympic Committee that there was already a calendar with funding that I could not break. They are public money, I understand it, I cannot apply at the last minute. That is done in January or February ”.
“As I knew Tokyo was coming, I wanted to do a good preparation with my coach. So, since there was no money, I took him and my girlfriend and we went to Europe. It was a big emotional and financial expense, “he confessed.
“When we returned in March and this pandemic happened, I actually had a conversation with the Committee, that the pools were not going to be open.. One will always expect more than they can offer you, you think you are a high-performance athlete and that leads to more demands. Not only in sports but also because of my disability, I depend on exercise to basically stay alive. My disability atrophies me day by day ”.
“I started training at home but months passed and I had no answer as to when I would train again, understanding this whole pandemic scenario.”
“I thought of buying a pool, but it cost me 30 million pesos”
In the midst of this health emergency: Was it easy for you to use implements to train at home? Was there communication with the Paralympic Committee?
“There was communication, but that is to say ‘I am waiting for something but it does not come’… I did receive help from the Ministry of Sports. The minister Cecilia Perez he sent me an exercise kit. This minister, regardless of the political party she is in, for me has been the best in history in Chilean sports. Close with the athletes, even more than the Committee. I noticed that communication from the minister. Many times my body ached and I had no way to move. I knew that this was difficult due to the pandemic, but I also expected answers from my closest ones, the Committee ”.
But there is something specific for you to train
“There were calls, we talked a couple of times, but I expected them to say, for example, ‘look Alberto, on the 15th of this month I’m going to get a pool so I can call’. They told me that, finishing this we will pay for a pool so you can swim. I was good, but there were also other alternatives that I could have taken, perhaps paying for a pool ”.
Yeah you tried to buy yourself a pool
“I thought of buying one but it came out 30 million pesos. He did not have that money to buy it. I know that there is a tremendous will of the Committee to be able to do things and help athletes, I have never been unaware of it. This is not about money, it is a management thing. If it were for money, I would have accepted at once having gone to the United States, when they called me for the first time in 2017. ″
“I want tools to be able to stay alive”
You have always had a tremendous disposition to self-manage your workouts, competitions, etc. Do you think the Committee should give a little more?
“Sometimes more communication is lacking, my rivals are training and I am not. I understand that we are in the middle of a pandemic and they are taking care of me so as not to get sick. But let’s also think that Alberto Abarza has a disability that progresses day by day. If you don’t play sports, you will die anyway. I need sports and also take care of the pandemic ”.
This is something that goes far beyond the sport you practice
“I say to some athletes, kids, I would like to be like you at a competitive level. It is difficult for me to be competitive, and it is not to be sad. When I go to a competition the last thing I think about is winning a medal. This I enjoy, I want to teach my daughter to enjoy life. What do I get from having medals if I don’t know if next year I will be able to move.
I want tools to be able to stay alive. I see the Committee as a company, but my family is also a company and the two fulfill different roles. The Committee, and with good reason, cares about the medal. However, my family cares about Alberto Abarza alive ”.
You also won a place in the ‘appointment of the rings’
“Sure, I need to stay sporty to live. If we are giving priority to the qualifiers to Tokyo, who has to train in the pool? Alberto Abarza, Vicente Almonacid and Kristel Köbrich. Kristel is in Argentina, so Vicente and I are staying. If we put Vicente to train on track 1 and me on track 0, was there a care or not a care? So, I think that a public administration is often lacking. There are many misunderstandings between the Committee and what I am asking for. The healthiest thing is to sit down and talk ”.
“I want to compete for my country, I never said otherwise”
In this direct communication with the minister, have you touched on this issue?
“She promised to help me manage permits and all that. I know that there are many things that do not depend on it. I have had super good communication, I have felt heard. Ricardo Elizalde (Chairman of the Committee) also calls me, but there are solutions that cannot wait 5 months, even if they call you every day ”.
Now, at this moment, is there a solution to training?
“I took PCR tests to be able to go back to training. With regard to the United States, I was a little saddened by the Committee’s explanation, that I was thinking that I was going to go to the United States, as if leaving a window on that. I made it clear I want to compete for my country, I never said otherwise.
With great respect I said that I was sorry that a country notices my talent and gives me options. ‘Look Alberto come and you will have swimming every day, plus a kinesiologist’. I love my country, for me in Lima and seeing my daughter’s face singing the national anthem was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me ”.
Alberto, how is your health?
“It has gotten worse, the pandemic has affected a lot. As we have not been able to train or have constant doctors, the disability has advanced. At the range of the legs, it already hurts a lot, the arms do not move as before. Although there is a tremendous emotional shock such as the birth of my daughter, to do an abdominal I need help, but my wife cannot do it because she is pregnant ”.
Your spirit has always been strong with wanting to get to Tokyo, but health is something complex, how do you see your participation in the games?
“My spirits have lowered, suddenly I am lying down and the pains begin. We have to be realists. Now I’m going to go into a pool and I want to see how I’m going to be swimming. For example, I was used to going out every day in a wheelchair for an hour for exercise. The other day I went out, I came to the corner and he was already dead ”.
Days go by and Alberto continues to wait. From the Committee they promised to have a swimming pool for when “the protocols allow it”. There is talk that he will have a special when the pandemic level goes down and thus prepare for Tokyo. However, Abarza’s physical pain and suffering continues to increase with every hour that passes.
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