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Susana Rodríguez Gacio (Vigo, 33 years old) does not stop. He has long banished the word ‘limit’ from his dictionary. A severe visual impairment, due to albinism, has not prevented him from making history. She became the first blind Spanish woman to graduate in Medicine, after having graduated in Physiotherapy. And later, he did it again in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, participating in two different disciplines, together with his guides, his eyes, Sara Loehr and Celso Comesaña. There he won the gold in triathlon, but it has not been the only one in 2021. At the beginning of November, he was proclaimed world champion for the fourth time and already has new challenges in mind. New adventures and projects. Because Susana does not stop and her legend, either …
—This 2021 has been magical …
“It is being very complete.” At the sporting level, I could not ask for more than a gold medal at the Games and that it is true seems amazing to me. I keep that moment. It can be, at best, equalized because it is insurmountable.
“How did you experience the Tokyo appointment?”
-Japan has taken the Games with an A. Any other country would not have been able to do it and less so with that efficiency. The experience, on a sporting level, incredible. I managed to make the best mark that I could in those circumstances. We knew the weather conditions and I was very prepared. I always had a hard time running in the heat, that’s why in March I looked for life. My coach and I had the advice of a physiologist, who works with the Spanish Badminton Federation, and they lent us a heat chamber to begin acclimatization in Sierra Nevada. Then we continued in the Sant Cugat bubble and this allowed me to arrive very well.
—He achieved gold in triathlon and diploma in 1,500 meters, something historic.
“Yes, but I don’t think so.” I do it because I like it. The afternoon of the triathlon I had a hard time focusing. The next morning I had another career and did a good head job. Then, competing in the stadium with Celso I loved it. Of course, it was going to the limit. The head hit me, but the body didn’t.
“Until the podium I was not aware of everything that had just happened”
“What was your moment?
“The triathlon podium!” It is when you are most aware of everything that just happened. Everybody told me: ‘Sara was happier than you when she reached the finish line’. But until I finished I did not think about it or celebrate it, that’s why my expressionlessness (laughs).
-What life is. She was about to go to the Beijing Games in athletics (she achieved the minimum, but they left her out) and that made her reinvent herself …
—I don’t know if everything happens for a reason, but if it doesn’t, we have to make it happen. There are hard experiences, but the good thing is that as time passes we perceive that what happened was a step for other things to come later.
—Like the triathlon, where it has revalidated its world crown.
—There are four of them and now, to build for next year. What I have experienced has been magical and I hope it continues to be so. There is a lot of work behind it.
– Another of the things that came was medicine and during the pandemic it was in the telephone attention to patients.
—I was working on it until September 2020. I finished the specialty (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) and they offered me a one-year contract to stay as an adjunct doctor in the same hospital. It was a difficult decision because I liked what I was doing. I had the Games on the horizon and decided to focus on training. The pandemic was a time complicated by uncertainty. I want to stay with teamwork within Health. We must always apply that. Things work if we all work together.
“From the pandemic I am left with the teamwork of Health”
—There, in the midst of a pandemic, he discovered his love for sports.
“It was my moment, my three hours of pleasure.” I had no goal because all competitions were canceled and I was training to keep myself. I was at full capacity, I got some incredible beatings on the bike, on the run, with the rowing machine … That was something I had never used. I was talking to María Delgado, about swimming, because they did rowing tests and I did too. He didn’t beat the majority, but hey (laughs). Athletes like to compete and challenge. If there aren’t any on the calendar, you’re already looking for one.
—And that’s going back to training outside the home?
“It was the coolest reunion!” How can something we do every day mean so much? The first day I went out with Celso for a run, we were wearing a mask and a little drowned, we were happy.
—In the summer he starred on the cover of the magazine TimeHow do you remember that?
-Was a tsunami. That is the word. I was surprised that in June they contacted me about a report about Olympians and Paralympians who went to Tokyo and had worked in Health during the pandemic, but I did not know that it would be on the cover. I was training in Lanzarote, in one of the concentrations prior to the Games, and when I came back I had a lot of missed calls, the Twitter at the top … It was very strange because something that was my day to day, without more, caught the attention of the magazine that has the most impact in the world. Suddenly it went from not existing to existing. It is good for Paralympic sport because it is a way for people to know what we do. It is welcome that this image can represent various groups, such as health workers, that deserve attention and have their place.
“Have you noticed a lot of change from that?”
-Yes. The medal of the Games was also very followed by the cover. You meet more people, the media are more interested … Although day to day is still the same, luckily.
“Besides being a sanitary, she’s also a patient.” In early 2020, she learned that she had heart disease.
—When this problem arises, there were no more seven months until the Games, one year and seven months were missing. ‘Uff“I’m going to spend more time living with this new situation,” he told me, but then that extra time was good for me to get used to the treatment, to do the small surgery to implant the Holter … That day in the afternoon I was already training. I was lucky that when it happened I met some cardiology colleagues from my hospital in Santiago and they helped me with the tests to make the diagnosis. As I was clear that I wanted to continue competing and go to Tokyo, they looked with me for the best plan to follow and everything went well.
“It was weird, something that was my day to day caught the attention of TIME”
“She also works with a sports psychologist.” Has the Tokyo appointment been a good tool to manage this …?
—Yes, I started working with Maria last year. You are the one who manages things, but many times you need to learn how. You always hear about the pressure of the high-level athlete and you can imagine it, but it is not the same as living it. I had high expectations for Tokyo and not only me, but also a very large environment. The days before the Games were not easy and it was helpful to have someone to help me focus. If you don’t do it the right way, it can play tricks on you. For many athletes, if not all, it can help us.
—Thanks to Simone Biles, mental health had a great impact on the Games …
—It’s a bummer that someone is in such an extreme situation of not being able to do what they like best because of the pressure. That his voice has focused on all this is very important for the sport, a great contribution. Everything that involves mental health is taboo. In Spain there is a lot of talk about traffic accidents, which is a terrible problem, but there are more deaths from suicides than on the roads. And that is hardly about. That is why it is necessary for these things to come to light.
—For a pro Madridista, another of the great experiences of 2021 will have been the kick-off of the Bernabéu …
—I have liked Real Madrid a lot since I was little. The club already invited me to go to a game after Rio and it had been great, but the detail of the kick-off seems like a real pass. Madrid will like it more or less, but it is a noble club. It was incredible to be there, to meet the players, to hear the people in the stadium and it was not crowded at the time because of the coronavirus … It was magical. And spend this day with Butragueño, who is a symbol … Imagine!
“Which player impressed you the most?”
—Benzema is a crack, Modric, Kroos, Asensio, Nacho… I was amazed at how tall Courtois is and I have the Lucas Vázquez shirt. I chose him because he is Galician, a humble boy …
—And what did your father, Delio, tell you from whom you inherited your passion for Medicine (retired anesthetist) and Madrid?
“The serve at the Bernabéu was amazing; I have been a madridista since I was a child “
—He liked it and was very amused by the anecdote about the shoe. When I kicked, he shot out and Benzema helped me get it back. My father is happy that I can experience all this.
“Tell me about the importance of family.” From his sister Patricia, from his mother Berta …
“I am very grateful to you for your support.” There has never been a sports tradition in my family and that makes it even more valuable. Now there are triathlon world series and my mother gets up at two in the morning to watch them. That was unthinkable years ago. That is why I believe more in close references, like them, where the effort is more appreciated.
“What future plans do you have?”
—I am with the work of the Master in doping prevention that, for the first time in my life, I did not deliver on the scheduled date… Impossible. Sportingly, I want to do the triathlon and athletics World Cup in 2022. I want to improve the foot race a little, to see how far I can go, specifically preparing the 1,500. And in Vigo one of my sponsors creates an athletics club and I will be close to the project. We will build a school for children with and without disabilities.
Have you noticed that people have become more hooked on Paralympic sport at these Games?
—They have been a boom in terms of follow-up. I don’t know if people are getting more knowledge, if with the coronavirus they craved good news … Before it was anecdotal and now the media are more present. At the end of the triathlon, there were more journalists there than I could imagine. This is going to be a non-stop. With each Games there will be more spectators and there will come a time when the Olympians will be equaled.
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