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Martina Timis and Guga Ortiz: the new life on wheels

Ni Guga Ortiz (25) ni Martina Timis (19) they know each other personally, but when they speak they seem to share a special confidence. They both lived almost the same life story, which started with a passion for the bicycle and ended on it, but with a hard accident. In 2017, he became a paraplegic after a fall in Whistler, Canada, while preparing for the Downhill World Cup; two years later, but in Argentina, she suffered the same in the middle of the World Cup, being quadriplegic. In this conversation with Third Both confess their strengths and fears, and how they motivate themselves day by day.

Martina (M): The quarantine has not affected me so much the truth. I am working with a kinesiologist at home; Before, I was going to rehabilitation at the Luis Krebs Institute, but due to the pandemic, I can’t anymore. Also, I am going to a hyperbaric chamber in Quillota, and I am guided by Leopoldo Parada, my sports traumatologist, so I have not stopped anything, I am full therapy.

Guga (G): I am with classes, I started the fifth trimester this week. I am also working with Multi Bike, taking care of everything that has to do with their website. Since the social outbreak I am not going to face-to-face classes at the U, so I was not going out much either. I am lucky that I am living with my girlfriend this quarantine, so it has been more entertaining. We have done a lot of things, she training on the roller almost every day.

M: And we don’t know each other personally, but I did locate you on social media. For your story, which is talked about a lot …

G: Yes, once we had just talked on the phone.

M: We are talking about therapy, right?

G: Yes. It was by an electrostimulator from the TrainFES company. They wanted me to try them, but since I am in Concepción, I am far away. How did it go for you?

M: Fruits have already come out of that conversation. They are going to send that team to my house, to be able to rehabilitate myself better.

G: This therapy is super cool. When I just started my rehabilitation, they came to my house, in Conce, with their electrostimulation equipment. With that technology they regulated the power so that my muscles tightened and I could stand up.

M: Are you already stopping ?!

G: Yes. Not with that technology, but yes. I have a burrito that I affirm. La Vale (her girlfriend) helps me with my feet and I get it there. Since I have spasms, my muscles have to tighten and I can stop there.

M: And your knees are not going forward?

G: Yes, but that’s when they have to squeeze me. I stop and Vale squeezes my thighs, so that they give me spasms. With those spasms I manage to stop for a while, then I feel … and so, many times. The other thing I do is stay upright on the balls of my feet, I get it there too. Since my injury is in the T7 and T8 vertebra I don’t feel anything from the stomach opening downwards, but I have my technique. Each one has to have his own, know his body and know what he is doing. I help myself by looking at my feet. The same will depend on the injury you have.

M: Clear. They don’t spasm me, that’s why I have to put on the gutters (prosthetics) so that my knees don’t bend forward.

G: You have to tell the person helping you to squeeze your thighs, the butt, or any muscle that helps stimulate.

M: Same, I am already recovering the strength of my left triceps, because before I only had the right one. I’m also doing a lot of trunk control, strength work, and leg stimulation, so they don’t get spastic. But I can chat on WhatsApp and everything, I’m used to it.

G: And how was the rehabilitation of your house?

M: All we did was remove the tub in the bathroom. Now it is a shower and there we put the bath chair. And I didn’t have to change my room because, although it is on the second floor, my brothers ride me on a horse every day.

G: I had to move from the second to the first floor and also remove the tub from the bathroom. There I get into a chair and the cool thing is that I go through all the doors, so there wasn’t much to remodel. I have some steps in the house, but we leave them as they are, because they help me to train for the street.

M: In my house we also had to change the carpets and put a floating floor, so that the wheels don’t bother me so much. Are you alone in the chair on the street?

G: Yes. I already learned how to go up and down sidewalks, and on the hill I am in manual (balancing on two wheels). There are also climbs that cost me, but there I adapt and learn.

M: My injury was in C6 and C7, so that costs me more, because I am quadriplegic.

G: Sure, I’m just a paraplegic. The Nano (Demaría, athlete who had an accident practicing enduro) has your injury, right?

M: Yes

G: The Nano was the one who recommended me to do therapy at the Worker’s Hospital and finish off at the Luis Krebs Institute. According to me, it was the best.

M: Me too. When my accident happened we were in Argentina and there my dad started making the inquiries and also, everyone recommended him to go to the Worker’s Hospital. We didn’t really know how we would pay for it, but luckily the bicicross family always supported us. And we also got insurance with the Hospital, but it was not the Guga insurance they announced later.

G: That insurance … I wish that a Law had been better for all athletes, but experts say that there are no more places and it will be for a reason, but the ideal was a Law for all Chilean athletes, not only for Proddar, but hey And did it cost you to adapt to the change?

M: Not really. Like I just had to change the lens. It is heavy, because before I was focused on classifying Tokyo and now I focus on rehabilitation, but it did not affect me as much as I would have thought. I’ve gotten along really well.

G: For me, at first it was very strange. My case was too mediatic and they were all on top. At first, it was like I was not living my real life, but the months passed and I returned to my house and there it was a little more difficult. In the end, this is going back to doing normal life, but without being able to get on the bike, without training, without enjoying what he did and that’s hard. I had a hard time finding a focus. Before, my goal was to train to run in the world championships and give my best, but after the accident, obviously, all that changed. It’s still complicated, I don’t deny it, but with classes and work I’ve helped ease the burden a bit when I wonder what really fills me up now. It will be very difficult to find something, but little by little I will fall in love with another sport.

M: It happened to me that, as everyone is in quarantine, I feel that I am not missing much. That helps me just the same. Also, I am between therapies and always with my brothers, so I never feel alone.

G: That’s good, always have your family close. It is very important in this process, because in the end the therapy is a team effort.

M: I mean, if my dad, my mom or my brothers weren’t there, I don’t know what would become of me. I couldn’t do anything I do now. I don’t know how I would get around, for example. Here in Quilpué the streets are bad; there are sidewalks that have descents, but not ascents, and things like that. Like everything is adapted, but it is an adaptation that does not work.

G: Yes, many adaptations on the street for people in wheelchairs are visual, but not functional. I have to find that there are smaller doors, small bathrooms, or sidewalks that cannot be lowered or raised. There is no very realistic concept of what adaptation is for people with physical disabilities.

M: I don’t go out much, less now. But when we go out, it happens to us that we must go around a lot to gain access, luckily my brothers help me a lot.

G: A classic.

M: Yes. Anyway, that’s why I think being home is not so bad for now. I still have future projects: I want to learn English and I am seeing if I go to a pre-university or not, because online classes accommodate me, since I cannot write. I would like to study psychology, and focus on sports.

G: Good! The truth is that I have not done much these months. I made a bed for my dog, hahaha, but not much more. I have focused very much on my career and on seeing the Multi Bike page, which I have to design and program well. I try not to get anxious, either, because you can’t do much more. Before, the motivation for the bicycle was born, because I loved it, but now it costs a little more. I have also found satisfaction in small things and I am learning to be more grateful with life, to integrate new things to take advantage of opportunities, but I am not looking for them. I think that everything happens naturally, like when I met the hill: I went one day and fell in love. Now, when I go with the chair, it is still bacán, I can smell the eucalyptus, the earth again… Walking on the tracks I used to travel is still something great.

M: And how did you adapt the chair to go to the hill?

G: I have special wheels, which I hook onto the footrest, as if leaving me on a slope, so I don’t bury or fall. But I am looking for a bike adapted to return to the hill, and I think I will end up jumping on it. I have not bought it because it is expensive, but I have been saving for two years. It also has an adaptation for tetraplegics, with levers to be able to brake, you should try it.

M: What a bacán. But does he push himself with his arms?

G: It is like a handbike. It has a motor that drives it. It is very practical, I will send it to you to see.

M: Please. The truth is that I want to continue doing sports. Now, I am 100 percent focused on my rehabilitation, but moving forward I want to find something with a bike.

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