They are not Athos, Portos and Aramis. They are Jhoan, Julian and Jhan Carlos. They do not wield rapier swords or muskets. Their weapons are two-wheeled chairs and three or four wheels. They do not wear hats or wear heavy doublets. They wear tank tops and shorts. They must not defend any king and must not capture an assassin. In his case, the goal was once to challenge himself and overcome fear. Now they have nothing to prove. They only seek to continue reaping triumphs more than 8,800 kilometers from the country where they were born. Always, with the desire that in their land they support and recognize their struggles.
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Jhoan Vargas, Julián López and Jhan Carlos Quintero are three wheelchair basketball players who added to their names the title of being the first Colombians to play in France, where one of the best adapted basketball leagues in the world is located. For five months they have been together in the ranks of HSB Marseille, the team from the second most populous city in the country. They currently play in Division B of the national tournament, but only eight games separate them from achieving promotion. The ten victories in the ten meetings that have gone on this season suggest that the present will soon be past. So they feel, believe and hope.
With 79 days to go before the date on which they seek to make the leap to the first category of French basketball, the years of effort and silent work echo. Their histories, separated by decades, merge today in a city marked for centuries by migration. There, in the midst of a melting pot of cultures, and without mastering French, their complicity on and off the pitch carries a single flag and a single motto: “All for one and one for all”.
The weight of the pioneer
The story of the three musketeers of Colombian basketball began in the ‘lobby’ of a hotel in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was March 2019 and Juan Carlos Quintero, at that time a young man from Cucuta, 19 years old, enjoyed having played his first international tournament after 24 months training adapted basketball. The week in which he was part of the Greek team of Megan Alexandros ’94, to face Euroleague 3, the third regional tournament of the old continent, had been worth it. Three wins in four games allowed his quintet to take second place.
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Confident that this was more a stop than a goal, Quintero bet on the only thing he had on hand to prolong his stay in Europe: his talent. After the award ceremony, he went to the hotel lobby and settled on a sofa. The plan was to wait for one of the leaders who left the event to offer him a contract. “If a team wants to look for me, they will find me here”he repeated with faith.
Surely, while waiting for the ray of light, Quintero stopped to think about how his life had changed in a matter of three years. In that chair, which he turned into a divan, he must have remembered that at 16 years of age he was lying on a stretcher as a result of a tumor in his right leg. For that reason, he had already had more than four unsuccessful surgeries. And uncertainty reigned until one day, full of hope, and fear, very fear, he asked the doctor who was treating him: “Doctor, amputate my leg, this won’t screw up my life any more.”
From that moment, Jhan Carlos began another path. A friend invited him to play sports and, although he didn’t think it was possible, he dared to try wheelchair basketball. The adrenaline, according to him, was what made him fall in love with that discipline. The same one that kept him away from his beloved Norte de Santander and was giving him wings to fly. Or at least that was what the lanky Frenchman suggested to him, who woke him up from his musings to offer him a contract with HSB Marseille, a team he had defeated. “Go back to Cúcuta and we’ll call you later,” was the last thing heard in that conversation.
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Arriving in Colombia, Quintero seemed to lose hope. More than two months had passed and the signal from Europe never came. One day in June 2019, when his phone rang and a voice came out of the speaker saying “We are from France”, the young basketball player asked for a moment and silenced the call. Next step, a “YESIII” deafened his neighborhood. Heart pounding, she tried to stay calm. “Sure, how are you doing? Tell me everything”, he answered her. Henceforth, a bureaucratic transfer of visas and tickets that led, in mid-September 2019, to a brief note at Marseille Airport: “Welcome, John”.
the second musketeer
To tell the truth, the initial hours of Quintero, the pioneer in France, made him foresee the worst. On his first outing on the street, he was mistaken for a thief and almost taken to a police station. Later, in a country where he only spoke what was necessary with his companions, he spent the saddest December of his life. Then came 2020 and, with it, a fateful wave: covid-19, health restrictions and the suspension of the official tournament.
For the unlucky streak to be cut, we had to wait until September of that first pandemic year. There, Quintero, with the confidence of the coach and the president of the club, had the opportunity to recommend someone for HSB Marsella. As nostalgia for him dictated, he must be a Colombian. John Vargasanother cucuteño, who inspired his life, the chosen one.
That of Vargas, 34, is a profuse and successful career. Since he ventured into adapted basketball, when he had finished high school and continuing to study was a remote option, he has never let go of the ball. It started thanks to a teacher who convinced him to practice sports without seeing a limitation in his congenital spinal injury, which prevents him from having mobility in his legs.. He first trained tennis, but did not catch it. He tried basketball, he liked it, and after seeing Alex Gómez Santamaría play, a figure from Norsantander basketball, he stayed there.
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In the streets of Cúcuta, Jhoan rolled in his chair, against all odds, from the Zulima neighborhood to the Sena court to play basketball. He did it accompanied by John Hernández, at that time another young man like him, with whom he shared a common dream: to reach Europe. During their long days of training with the departmental team, and then with the national team, in the best style of Jaime Molina and Rafael Escalona, Vargas and Hernández promised each other that the first one to jump would take the other. So it was. After the 2012 Paranational Games, Hernández landed in Europe to join Zaragoza, from the second division of Spain. In 2014, with the team in first, he gave Vargas the push.
Since then, Jhoan has developed his entire sporting life in foreign clubs. He went through Spain, went to Brazil and returned to Iberian soil to play for Victoria, a Basque team. There, the pandemic caught him, his plans changed, and the road recalibrated the compass in Cúcuta.
Back in the country, Jhoan met Jhan Carlos in the red and black quintet in which they play when the European season allows it. As they had done on several occasions, they warmed up their level and talked about goals and projects. In one of those conversations the idea of Marseille arose. By mid-September 2020, Vargas was landing on French soil. And, with his arrival, the beginning of a new sports project.
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There are no two without three
Jhoan says that he agreed to go to France because he could have a unique leadership. Although many saw his decision as a setback, the challenge of taking on a second division team for promotion was more than seductive. Along the way, the managers gave him the accolade to recommend another player. Julian Lopeza 19-year-old from Bogota, whom he had met in a couple of interdepartmental tournaments, was his first choice.
Julián and Jhoan’s paths crossed in a competition during Easter 2021. By then, the veteran told the rookie to keep training, that it was going very well. In September, they met again and the words evolved: “they are going to call you from Marseille”, he told her. And so it happened. In October, with less than a year of experience coaching adapted basketball, López was already making the leap to Europe. And although the success was fleeting, the process was hard, enriching and tortuous.
At 22 days old, Julián suffered a bone marrow injury after what he defines as a “bad procedure” in his stomach. After that, he spent his entire childhood asking the doctor who operated on him if at some point he would be able to regain mobility in his legs. The ‘no’ that he glimpsed came when he was nine years old. From then on, without further questions, Julián assumed his destiny and his determination was his strongest response.
At school, being the only one in a wheelchair, he was bullied. The puerile trials affected him, but they did not bring him down. That is why, when he had already graduated from high school, and his mother encouraged him to practice sports on the Kennedy district courts, Julián had to put aside the fear of being hurt. The adopted basketball was the best option to do it and that is why today, from the extensive deck of his aphorisms, the one that insistently repeats stands out: “The important thing is not how others see you, it’s how you see yourself in the future”.
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Union make force
In Marseille, although the team provides them with different apartments, the three musketeers are used to living under the same roof. Jhoan has the leadership role, Jhan is in charge of translating the most confusing French and Julián is the one who promotes discipline.
The most curious thing is that, as in the novel by Alexandre Dumas, this story will not only be about three warriors. As they say, the hiring of two other compatriots will take place when they achieve promotion. That is an additional motivation to continue firm in its purpose: to help more Colombians to succeed in their sport.
ANDRES FELIPE BALAGUERA SARMIENTO
Networking: @balagueraaa
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