The second largest sporting event in the world has finally gone home. Thousands of athletes have ascended upon London, England, for the 2012 Summer Paralympics, which is second only to the Olympics themselves. The Paralympics got their start in London in 1948 by the determined efforts of Dr. Ludwig Guttman, who believed strongly in using sport as therapy for people who were injured during World War II.

Guttman intentionally organised his wheelchair games to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics, and just like that the international competition for men and women with disabilities was born. Now, 64 years later, the Paralympics Summer Games are returning to London.

At the ‘home of cricket’, Lords Cricket Ground, a team of five members of the UK’s first blind women’s cricket team carried the Flame into the famous ground, which will play host to the Paralympic Archery competition. (Photo courtesy of London 2012)

Like the Olympics the best of the best have come to compete on the world’s biggest stage. Despite being blind, in a wheelchair, or mentally handicapped these athletes put on a show of incredible athletic prowess and ferocity. Even more impressive than the Olympic athletes, these men and women have already overcome a great obstacle in their lives and decided that being handicapped is no excuse.

Argentina will be well represented at this year’s competition with some medal hopeful teams and individual athletes. But even if they don’t make it to the podium, making it to the Paralympics is triumph in itself.

So it’s time again to grab your flag, paint you face in blue and white, and get comfy in front of the couch as the Indy highlights some of the many athletes at this year’s Paralympics’ Games.

Athletics

Argentina will have very high podium hopes for a few athletes on its athletics team travelling to London after a strong showing in Guadalajara where the team won eight gold medals at the 2011 Para Pan-American Games.

Top athletes from around the world competed at the Visa London Disability Athletics Challenge. The event showcased world-class athletes competing at the Olympic Stadium on 8 May. (Photo courtesy of London 2012)

Hernán Barreto is one of the athletes that is looking to run onto the podium in London 2012. Barreto won gold in both the men’s 100m and 200m in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the T35 category, T35 is for athletes with cerebral palsy.

According to the International Paralympic Committee he was ranked number three in the world in 2011 in the men’s 100m. His biggest competition will come from China’s Xinhan Fu and Russia’s Teboho Mokgalagadi, who are ranked number one and two in the world and were Beijing’s silver and bronze medalists.

Another medal hopeful is Sebastian Baldassarri. Baldassarri is the 2008 Beijing silver medalist in men’s discuss throw F11-12, which is the category for blind athletes. Baldassarri won gold in the discuss throw at the Para Pan-Am games in 2011, and also grabbed a silver in shot put. He is hoping for at least a repeat silver medal if not the gold itself.

Yanina Martínez and Naudia Schaus are hoping to step onto the podium together again, after a one, two finish in both the women’s 100 and 200m T36 in Mexico. T36 is also for athletes with cerebral palsy.

The women both qualified for the Paralympics and are hopeful to repeat the Argentine dominance of the podium. They are currently ranked number three and four in the world for the 100 and 200m.

Overall athletics is one of Argentina’s strongest events, boasting numerous medal contenders that are ready to bring home some hardware.

Swimming

Argentina has golden dreams for a few swimmers as they dive into the pool at the Aquatics Centre in London, England.

One of its biggest up and coming swimmers is Daniela Giménez. Giménez won three medals at the 2011 Para Pan-American Games in Mexico, two gold in the women’s 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke, and a bronze in the 100m butterfly.

The young 19-year-old swimmer from Chaco is missing her left hand placing her in the S9 category for slightly handicapped swimmers.

Trained by Sergio Sainz, the Argentine swimmer timed 38s10 in the 50m breast in a tournament in April 2011 at the National Centre of High Performance Athletics (CeNARD). The time was a world record but was not approved because of the lack of anti-doping control tests.

On the men’s side team Argentina will be well represented by Ignacio González and Guillermo Marro, who are both coming from a very strong showing at the Para Pan-Am Games.

González picked up a silver in the 200m individual medley and won three bronze in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke all in the S12 or visually impaired category.

Competitors compete in the men's 100m Butterfly – S10 during day two of the 2008 Paralympic Games at the National Aquatics Centre on 8 September 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo courtesy of London 2012)

Marro was the sole medalist at the Beijing Paralympics in swimming in 2008 when he won bronze in the 100m backstroke S7. S7 signifies the level of the physical handicap; Marro has very limited use of his legs and spends his time in a wheelchair right up until the moment he gets into the pool. In Guadalajara he proved he’s back to win by grabbing a gold in the 100m backstroke and a silver in the medley relay alongside Facundo Lazo, Marco Pulleiro, and Bruno Lemaire. This time he will try to win the gold in the 100m backstroke.

Marro is the flag bearer for team Argentina at the opening ceremonies in London.

Wheelchair Tennis

The serves are just as hard, the shots are just as fast and the rules are the exact same, but as the ball whips around the court so too do the metal wheels of the athletes’ chairs as they race back and forth trying to hit the tennis ball.

At the London Games, Gustavo Fernández will don the blue and white as he represents Argentina in the men’s singles.

Fernandez is ranked sixth in the world according to International Tennis Federation rankings and qualified for London 2012 after winning the 2011 Para Pan-American Games.

These Paralympics also mark the first time that the competition will be held in a purpose built stadium created specifically for wheelchair tennis. Eton Manor will have a capacity for 10,500 spectators to view the very best that the sport has to offer with a total of 112 athletes across all divisions.

For a complete list of all the Paralympic athletes and when they compete please visit our events calendar online.

Argentina’s sports men and women won two gold and four bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics, equalling their tally of the Athens Games four years ago – their best result since competing in London in 1948. According to sports minister, Claudio Morresi: “For Argentina, it was the best performance for the last 60 years.”

The Argentine delegation made a dream start on the very first day of competition, with the hardy young judo player, Paula Belen Pareto battling through the repechage in the 48kg category to defeat Pak Ok Song of North Korea to claim a bronze medal.

However Argentina had to wait until well into the second week of competition before tasting further success, but it was worth it. Cycling duo Juan Curuchet – a 43-year-old appearing at his sixth Olympics – and Walter Pérez surprised a quality field, including red-hot favourites Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish of a Great Britain team that had swept all before them at the Laoshan Velodrome, to claim gold in the Madison. Curuchet’s brilliant strategic awareness enabled the pair to win three of the ten sprints and then gain a lap on the field to win the highly complex event.

In the regatta at the Qingdao Sailing Centre, Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola won four of the ten races in the Tornado class, but they could not match the consistency of the Spanish and Australian crews and had to settle for bronze.

Argentina had high hopes from their professional stars in the hockey, basketball and football competitions, each boasting a ‘golden generation’ who had achieved sustained success for the best part of a decade.

Argentina’s women’s hockey team, nicknamed ‘Las Leonas’ were well fancied as reigning Champions Trophy winners, but they got off to inauspicious start with successive 2-2 draws against lesser lights, USA and Great Britain. A 4-0 thrashing of group rivals Germany got their medal hopes back on track, but second place in the group gave them the toughest possible draw against their nemesis of recent years, the Netherlands in the semi-final.

The semi-final went disastrously for Las Leonas as they went down 5-2 to the Dutch, the eventual winners. Despite their grave disappointment the Argentines showed great resilience in the bronze medal play-off against reigning Olympic champions Germany, winning 3-1 with goals from Rosario Luchetti, Carla Rebecchi and Noel Barrionuevo. The bronze medal was just reward for veteran performers like Magdalena Aicega and Luciana Aymar competing in their last Olympics after earning medals in Sydney and Athens too.

The Beijing Games also marked the swansong for the ‘golden generation’ of Argentine basketball including the likes of Manu Ginóbili, Andrés Nocioni, Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino. However the side were plagued by injuries, not least to the talismanic Ginóbili and their chances of repeating their gold medal performance of four years earlier effectively vanished when a first game defeat to Lithuania condemned them to a semi-final match up with the millionaire NBA superstars of the USA’s ‘Redeem Team’.

Despite a valiant effort, the Argentines were not able to keep up with the scoring rate of the USA and their fate was sealed when Ginóbili limped off the court injured in the first quarter. Like their hockey counterparts, the basketball team showed their true mettle to bounce back and beat Lithuania to the bronze medal.

If the USA were the superstars of the basketball court, then Argentina were arguably the ‘dream team’ of the football pitch, boasting a rich seam of talent such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero and Juan Román Riquelme.

The team’s preparations were thrown into chaos when Messi’s club, Barcelona obtained a ruling from the International Court of Sporting Arbitration to withdraw the young superstar from the competition. However the Catalans relented when Messi reaffirmed his desire to represent his country at the tournament.

After cruising through the early rounds the Argentines met their old rivals Brazil in the semi-final and won through 3-0 to set up a gold-medal decider with Nigeria. The final was played in a scorching temperature exceeding 40°C, but the Argentines did not wilt and eventually endured 1-0 to clinch the gold medal.

There were also some notable failures. Argentina’s much vaunted tennis players such as David Nalbandian who have been regulars in Davis Cup Finals in recent years failed to get past the early rounds. Meanwhile the pole-vaulter, Germán Chiaraviglio also failed to live up to his pre-Games billing.

If Argentina is to improve on its medal tally at the London Games in 2012 then greater resources need to be trained on individual sports as well as the traditional team sports of football, hockey and basketball. It is something that Morresi has promised to address through bringing in foreign coaches and in developing sports such as athletics and swimming that award a lot of medals at the Games. Whether this is enough only time will tell, Argentina has the raw talent but without the right support it is destined to continue to underachieve.

A few years ago, a young assailant got more than he bargained for when he tried to rob 72-year-old Ludmila Tisinova. Upon obtaining Ludmila’s purse he was rather surprised to have a large Olympic style hammer flung at him at high velocity.

Despite Ludmila’s age, she is anything but a defenceless old lady. She is one of a number of senior athletes who train and compete regularly at competitions organised by CADAV (Argentine Veteran Athletics Circle).

Those of us who complain that we are too tired to go to the gym or that we’re past it might well be put to shame by some of CADAV’s members. Instead of giving in to the ageing process, members like Ludmila have chosen to defy it or ignore it all together.

The Argentina Independent attended a tournament run by CADAV to see how the older generation can teach us a thing or two about commitment and motivation.

CADAV

CADAV is an independently run club consisting of 2,500 members which organises regular competitions for athletes of 30 and above throughout Buenos Aires. Each year, they organise 18 track and field events as well as the shot put, discus, hammer and javelin.

Rafael Lattulleri, who competes in the shot put, discus and hammer throw, is the club’s oldest competing athlete at 95. Fernando Hidalgo is 86 and participates in the 10km walk and Dante De Andres, also 86, takes part in the shot put and discus events. In total, the organisation has over 50 members aged over 70 who regularly train and compete.

Events are divided into age brackets of five years; the current highest bracket is 90-95. The organisation was founded in 1969 by a group of ex-athletes who wanted to continue competing at a competitive level after their top-level days were over. The club was the first of its kind, not only in Argentina, but also in the whole of South America. Since then, similar equivalent organisations have been set up throughout the continent and there is now a South American Championship held every two years.

Athletes’ Motivation

“For me it’s a way by which people can carry on feeling young,” remarks Ricardo Crudo, CADAV’s president, of the club’s popularity. “Here people don’t get sad when it’s their birthday,” he adds, “they’re happy because they know they can go up an age bracket which will increase their chances of winning!”

“Some people smoke or drink. This is our drug; this is our way of getting high,” says Manuel Rocha, 66. Manuel competes in the decathlon and his strongest events are the high jump and javelin. He is well known in the club for being a character.

He is a former circus performer who likes to run complete with an artificial hairpiece. “Look at the years it takes off me,” he jokes. Manuel trains five times a week from Monday to Friday in Parque Avellaneda with large group of other athletes of a similar age. They all train hard and then go off to drink mate together. He has competed all over the world, and in September he is off to the Masters World Championships in Riccione, Italy.

A level playing field

Although the focus is undoubtedly on competing, there is a strong social element to the club. Besides social events organised by the club, many athletes get together after training and it is not uncommon for couples to form out of this.

It is hard to pinpoint a typical athlete at CADAV as its members come from such a wide social spectrum. “Here you’ll have a doctor and a mechanic training together, then the mechanic will go round and fix the doctor’s car and the doctor will come round to help when the mechanic is ill,” Ricardo points out.

“It doesn’t matter what your background is, once you’re on the running track everyone is equal. Everyone wins here,” comments Jacabo Mizrahi, a 70-year-old doctor who looks closer to 50 than 70 and competes regularly in most of the running events. Jacabo started running at 38 as a way to deal with the stress related to his work and has never looked back.

A family affair

The club receives no subsidy from the government and is kept going entirely due to commitment of its members. They recently set up an office in south west of Buenos Aires, and many people gave up their Sunday to help paint the new headquarters. Inside the office, there is welcoming family atmosphere – indeed Ricardo is the son of one of the original founders and Nelida, another member of the board, is his mother-in-law.

The same is true in the tournaments CADAV holds. In some events it has been known to have as many as four different generations competing together. Fernando Hidaldo, 86, regularly competes against his 59-year-old son, his grandson and even his great grandson. In order to stay on top of his game, Fernando makes meticulous notes of his times and has records of his performances going back 14 years. “He’s sharper than most of us,” admits Mauro, the club president’s son, who helps run the events.

International Events

Besides running the tournaments, CADAV helps athletes organise trips to take part in international competitions. The South American Championship is held every two years in different cities, and the World Masters Championships (also held every two years) is due to take place in Riccione, Italy this year.

78-year-old Eduardo Verdi is one such CADAV member who regularly competes at an international level. Eduardo has travelled the 500km from Mar del Plata to compete in the tournament run by the club here in Buenos Aires. When we meet him after one of the races, he is quick to establish his sporting credentials: “Every time I go to a championship I end up on the podium,” he announces proudly. In a career spanning over 20 years, Eduardo has won over 150 titles within Argentina and throughout South America. Indeed he is so successful that Buquebus (the well known ferry company) have agreed to sponsor him. When we ask to take a photo of him he insists on putting on his sponsored shirt. Before every tournament, he follows a strict sportsman’s diet combined with an intense training plan.

“In 1996 this Brazilian guy beat me at the South American Championships in Montevideo.” the veteran recounts. “But I researched why I lost and in the next championship, I beat him.” He grins mischievously.

A lesson for us all

After a morning watching athletes over three times our age glide effortlessly round the track, The Argentina Independent team feels suitably humbled. There are vague mutterings about giving up smoking or getting to the gym more. What is striking about all the athletes at CADAV is their resounding optimism and commitment. These are people who challenge our preconceptions of what it is to be old.

In modern society, we have a tendency to overlook the older generation as they remind us that one day we won’t be so young and sprightly. Yet, individuals like Jacabo, Fernando and Ludmila have an important lesson to teach us all about how we approach the ageing process.

“My wife told me to choose between her or athletics, I picked up my running shoe and held it in front of her: ‘Do I make myself clear?’” jokes Jacabo of his passion for athletics.

So the next time you complain that you can’t be bothered to go for a jog or that you are getting too old for exercise, remember octogenarian Fernando Hidaldo, and just maybe he might make you think twice.