Sometimes, along the way of life, we encounter different obstacles that we have to overcome in the best possible way to move forward. A perfect example of this is the history of Overcoming the former player of the Spanish wheelchair basketball team Diego de Paz. The Sevillian has attended ElDesmarque to narrate how his path has been in the field of adapted sport, with three Olympic diplomas and an infinity of national and European titles in his record in a long career on the parquet. His effort, his emotions, his participation in Pedro’s film Almodovar Aspen meat bending to Javier Bardem and other details of a life made happy by sport are part of the interesting top video.
From a very young age, to Diego, who suffered poliomyelitis Before he was vaccinated, he was so passionate about basketball that his father made a basket for him on the lot of his house so that he could play with his brothers. “I used to shoot with a stool because I got tired standing up.” They were his first steps in a sport that would become one of the fundamental axes of his life. “One day I tried to play with the sports wheelchair and from the first training session I knew that it was the sport I was going to dedicate myself to fully.”
Little by little, De Paz was learning to handle the wheelchair and was fine-tuning his aim. In 1994, he packed his bags to go to Madrid and play for Fundosa. “It helped me to mature personally and professionally.”
“Sports, the best balm for any bump in life”
For the former basketball player, sport is “the best balm you can have, to see how you can improve yourself every day, to see how you are integrated into society through sport, it is the best way to get out of that pothole that puts you life but that not much less life ends “.
After many years dedicated to the basket, from the age of 17 to 41 when he retired, Diego has been able to see how the adapted sport has evolved in all this time. “I started playing with a chair that weighed 25 kilos and I have come to play at the end of my career with one that weighed nine kilos. “In addition to the technical advances, the visibility now given to adapted sport is totally different.” Now this type of sport is given a diffusion tremendous and we are better known. Before it was difficult for people to know what wheelchair basketball was, and everyone knows it and society is more sensitized. “
Among the many achievements of this Andalusian athlete are the three Olympic diplomas that he obtained in the Paralympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta and London (1992, 1996 and 2012). With obvious emotion in his eyes, Diego explains what that first experience was like in a high-level event such as Barcelona. “I remember how when they said Spain in the parade there was an explosion in the stadium public, it was brutal and I was burned. It was very strong”.
With an innate ability to surpass himself, the Sevillian recognizes that he is proud that the Valencina de La Concepción Municipal Sports Center – his town – bears his name. “I hardly believe that a medal would exceed this satisfaction. I was the first case in which, unanimously, a City Council named a sports center after a Paralympic athlete. I am delighted that Valencina opened that ban on recognizing athletes Paralympians “.
A few months ago, De Paz took advantage of Álvaro Morata’s ‘pull’ in the Eurocup to highlight the value that is not given to adapted sport. “It hurt me that he ignored the fans a little and I told him, with respect, that it was free to have been as I was playing in the Spanish team, along with many other colleagues, costing us to take our vacation days that we had to understand the criticism and that I had put myself in his situation. I wanted to delve into that he was privileged because of what he had. “
Born sportsman, the Andalusian is a ‘Almodóvar boy’. Diego de Paz worked with the renowned Spanish film director on the film Aspen meat making of double of Javier Bardem. “I had to dub him in a few scenes and Almodóvar told me that he had the same face and the same beast back as Javier.”
Happy for everything he has experienced thanks to sport, Diego de Paz encourages the little ones to try any discipline. “For a handicap that is severely affected, I am sure there is something I can do. That they do not have disabled children at home, get them out, let them see the world and do not be afraid. If they fall, they will get up. “
