The wheelchair Bidaideak squad, which was proclaimed League champion last season. /
Bidaideak issued an invitation to Nilofar Bayat, “not to sign a great player, but to help a woman whose life was in danger”
The trajectory of the Bidaideak Bilbao BSR is full of effort and glory. The Bilbao wheelchair basketball team is at its best after having signed a historic season in which it has been proclaimed League champion, Cup runner-up and fourth place in the top European competition. “We like to win, of course, but we see sport as an inclusion tool for people with disabilities,” says the club’s president, Txema Alonso.
That has been the maxim that has accompanied the Biscayan team since its inception almost thirty years ago. Back then the club was called Zuharrak and each season it fought for a place in the Division of Honor. “It was what we would call a rising team, closely linked to the beginnings of basketball in Bizkaia,” says Alonso.
“We want to help a leading activist in the fight for the rights of women with disabilities”
In 2012 the effects of the economic crisis arrived and the group lost most of its external sponsors. It was then that the association of people with functional diversity Bidaideak came to the aid of the club. “We took on the challenge of reorganizing it and since then the team has acquired a marked social character, of asserting and visualizing the capacity of our players,” says Alonso.
Since then, the Bilbao team has been gaining strength and the greatest in this sport have been measured, teams with thousands of members and a large budget. Those in Bilbao have 150 members and have the support of a modest association, but through effort they have placed themselves among the best. Its president highlights the path traveled: “We are in the elite, competing at 110% to be at the level of teams with more staff and funding.”
The first team of the Bidaideak BSR is currently made up of twelve players and the group has an initiation and improvement school in which fourteen kids train. The quarry. They also have a faithful crowd in Txurdinaga: “We have managed to open a space in the hearts of the people of Biscay to break down barriers for boys and girls with disabilities,” highlights Alonso.
A warm welcome
More than a team, the president of Bidaideak Bilbao BSR likes to talk about family and the proposal made to Nilofar Bayat is an invitation to join it. When the SOS from the Afghan captain reached them, they did not hesitate to respond: “She sent a tremendous message and when you hear that, you don’t see a player who can score two points at a certain point in a match, but rather a person whose life is in danger. We wanted to show you that you are not alone. Our intention is not to sign a great player, but to help a leading activist in the fight for the rights of women with disabilities ”, explains Txema Alonso.
The Bilbao team has made the Afghan captain and her husband see that their doors are open and “if they want to wear our jersey, they have it.” If Bayat finally decided to come to Bilbao, Txema Alonso is sure that this good reception would also be noticeable outside the park: “I have no doubt that the Biscayan society would have a reference deal with them,” he highlights.
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