The first thing Susana Rodríguez (Vigo, 36 years old) does is ask for forgiveness. She is so busy combining her work as a doctor with that of a triathlete that she is preparing for the Paris Paralympic Games, that the only time she has free to talk is May 1, Labor Day and a national holiday. “Today I wasn’t going to the hospital and I had more time,” she apologizes over the phone from Vigo. The summer of the 1996 Atlanta Games, at the age of eight, Susana was already “playing the Olympics” with her sister on the terrace of her house, as she has recalled in more than one interview. What she hadn’t told before was that she also loved playing with dolls. “My sister’s friend had a lot of Barbies and we were always looking forward to going to her house to play with them,” she remembers. Who was going to tell that girl that she cut out flags from the atlas to stick them on her tracksuit so that 25 years later she would win a gold medal at the Tokyo Games. And how could she imagine, when she fantasized about dolls, that the new generations could do so with a Barbie who is both an athlete and a doctor, and also has albinism, like her. That one day she would hold a Susana Rodríguez Barbie in her hands.
“Having a Barbie in your likeness is something impressive,” confirms the Galician. She has to be, especially now that the doll, which just turned 65, is more fashionable than ever thanks to the overwhelming success of the film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. This 2024, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary that coincides with the Olympic Games, Mattel has designated a series of female references in sports and Susana is part of that collection of dolls that they have named Role Models. “My doll is an example that with work we can achieve many of the goals we dream of in childhood and that is what I want it to convey,” says the Paralympic champion. She is the only Spaniard in the new Role Models line, with nine dolls in total, which also includes the American tennis player Venus Williams, the Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini, the French boxer Estelle Mossely and the Polish athlete Ewa Swoboda. Before her, other Spaniards such as the businesswoman and designer Vicky Martín Berrocal, the singer Alaska, the pilot Laia Sanz and the Olympic athlete Ana Peleteiro have been part of this line.
Of course, Susana Rodríguez is a role model. She was born with a severe visual impairment inherent to the genetic condition of albinism, but that never stopped her. Her father is an anesthesiologist and instilled in him her passion for medicine. But were there “blind doctors”? She asked the internet search engine and it returned evidence in the United States, so, once confirmed that it was possible, she did not stop until she achieved it. She now works as a doctor specialized in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in a public hospital in her native Vigo. She started her sports career at the age of 10, thanks to an ONCE teacher. She now accumulates, in addition to the gold in Tokyo, nine medals in the Adapted Triathlon World Championship and eight in the European Championship of the same category. Last April she also became the first woman with a disability in win the National Sports Award, which he received from Queen Letizia. “My Barbie is the doll of someone who had some crazy dreams and in the end it shows that life takes many turns and if you put effort, work and passion you can achieve many of them. I always say not all, because ‘wanting is power’ is very fashionable and no. There are limits and that is not true at all, but daily work brings us very close to the things we would like,” she reflects.
In three months he will be in the French capital to face his third Paralympic Games. At her premiere in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016, she placed fifth. In Tokyo, in 2021 (they were delayed a year due to the pandemic), she achieved the long-awaited first place and took an enormous weight off her shoulders. “At that moment I started as favorite and all the spotlights were on me. I enjoyed everything a lot, but it is true that in the days before the race I had a rough time because, sometimes, without any bad intentions, everyone seems to be already celebrating things and in that sense I am very cautious, conscious of my possibilities, but also with the utmost respect for the work of others. Now I see it differently, obviously I would love to be on the podium in Paris, that is the goal, but I enjoy every step there more,” she acknowledges.
The year after returning from Japan, Susana suffered burnout (mental exhaustion that occurs when one is emotionally, physically or mentally exhausted after an overload of work). “It was a pretty tough situation,” he admits now. But it was also a lesson: “I learned some things and one of them is not to leave aside the rest.” He defines the preparation for the Paris Games as “intense” and says that he is “doing his homework” as best he can, but he also assures that every day he tries to dedicate some time, “even if it is small, but of quality”, to be with his people. “If not, you get into the bubble of sport, which is very cool, but to maintain balance you have to take care of all aspects of the human being and that is something that is very clear to me now,” he says. Before, he said that the happiest day of his life was the one he won Olympic gold. Now she has changed it to the birth of his nephew, on January 1, 2024. “He also lives here in Vigo and, even if it’s just for a few minutes, I like to go and smile a little and play with him. In the end, time passes and that is what we take with us,” he warns.
![Susana Rodríguez and her guide, Sara Loehr, crossing the finish line that won them the gold medal during the women's PTVI Triathlon at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, on August 28, 2021.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/QPGB66ATP5H6LBM6H75LTFFZHE.jpg?auth=cb08a09c50650db9f0d34b5b0ef0c70c5b2d3aa8b92cdc3ed2dab03749f94e4c&width=414)
In your Instagram profile has two posts posted. One is the magazine cover time which she starred in in 2021. “Susana Rodríguez, the Paralympic athlete on the front line of the fight against covid-19 in Spain,” headlined the prestigious American weekly. “It was a turning point,” confesses the Galician. “Before that cover I had been doing the same thing for many years, but many times things are not known until they are shown to us. Suddenly it occurs to someone that your story is nice to tell and in some way it changes your life,” she considers. That cover was her great international showcase for brands and now she is an ambassador for big brands like Adidas, whose clothes she wears in the second publication that she has posted on her profile, the cover of the Spanish edition of the magazine elle which he starred in last February. “Posing as a model takes me a lot out of my comfort zone, but I like it because I think it helps give visibility to the genetic condition of albinism, which still has a lot of prejudices. The wealth of society lies in the diversity of people and the respect that must exist between them, and I believe that it must be shown that there are different physical bodies and that they are all respectable,” she maintains. That’s why she is so proud of the Susana Rodríguez Barbie.
There are more things that are very clear. For example, although there are better sports facilities in other cities, his home is in Vigo. “The quality of life is very good and I have my family, my friends, my training group and right now that is what makes me happy. If that means some resignation, you have to accept it and that’s it,” she points out. He also knows that his sports career has fewer years left than he has already enjoyed, but he is not too concerned because he has already made his way in medicine. “I will only understand continuing to compete in high-level triathlon if two things are true: that I see myself in a position to fight and make things difficult for the rest, and that I continue to have enthusiasm, enjoy it and want to be training more than doing other things. As long as that is fulfilled, I have no withdrawal date,” he guarantees. As for the doll, he already has a candidate to bequeath it to. “If I had more than one, I would like to give it to Martina, who is the little daughter of Luis, my coach, and she is a very special friend because I have seen her grow. I’m sure he would love to have it in her hands,” she says. That’s if she had more than one, because the one she has, hers, she won’t let go of.
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