January 10, 2023 – 01:02
The “Jujuy Basketball” team seeks to promote the integration of people with disabilities into sport.
For Emiliano Saavedra.
That disability does not become a social problem. Basketball players who challenge themselves to the hoop from their wheelchairs do much more than a sport. Playing basketball for them is doing a triple to life. It’s winning a battle by a landslide that fate didn’t ask you if you wanted to fight. Some of the players can’t use their legs, others can, but not in the best way. For this reason, Jujuy Básquet, a team that closed 2022 as champion of the Northern National League, works with the aim of including children, youth and adults through sport.
The medical reasons why players practice wheelchair basketball are varied, such as polio, traffic accidents and myelomeningocele that attacked the extremities, to name a few. Even so, these warriors are united by that incapacity that, before the first medical diagnoses, ate away at their minds and souls. But time, the search and the people who crossed the path came together to transform the incapacity into a different capacity.
The Jujuy Básquet group coordinated by Gustavo Lemes played the tournament in which teams from Salta, La Rioja and Santiago del Estero were present. The tournament was held in the province and the venue won the trophy for getting a perfect score on all four dates. Precisely, the coach of the Jujuy team spoke with The Tribune of Jujuy and explained that “11 years ago we trained at the tip of the San Martín park. There we dedicated ourselves in the inclusive part on Saturdays with the idea of hanging out. People with the same disabilities came together. They were all people over 45 years old ” , indicated.
Highly committed and carrying out a very laudable task, the coach confessed that “I am looking for a few players to go train because there are some who have complications in moving due to the conditions of the neighborhood and added to wheelchairs. The issue of accessibility in the province with the issue of public transport is complicated”.
At the end of 2017, they were left without a field because the repairs began at the end of the San Martín park. Currently, the team trains at the Olympic Stadium in Palpalá, because “unfortunately, due to the characteristics and maintenance of the chair, we cannot play in a sports center due to the simple fact that the wheel covers are special and each pair costs $35,000. For “That if we go to a field with smoothed cement it will last one or two months. The chair has four wheels and it has a value of $16,000. It is a very expensive sport,” said the technician who also worked outside Jujuy and took some boys to compete in the neighboring province.
Upon returning to his homeland, Lemes collided with a harsh reality: the little support they had. Elsewhere, the picture is different. “There are not many spaces in the province for people with disabilities to play sports on equal terms with anyone else. Despite the sporting and competitive approach that we give them, we also play an important inclusive role, because when they enter the field they forget about wheelchairs,” he said.
The chairs for this sport are special and are expensive. “It is played by all people who have a disability in their locomotor system. Each chair is made with the body measurements of each player and then with some specific characteristics of the person’s disability, a cheap wheelchair is costing around $600,000 and a professional $3 million”, he indicated about the amount of the element for the development of the activity.
For Lemes it is important to promote the practice of wheelchair sports and in turn generate recreational activities, achieving both group and sports ties, improving the quality of life of people with disabilities.
A passion that was given without thinking
Jonatan Guanuco, a member of the “Jujuy Basketball” team, understood that this sport saved him mentally after suffering a tragic road accident. Today this player feels that basketball gives him “a lot of adrenaline, because he is very competitive and there is a lot of contact”, and he maintained that “now I always hope it is time to go train to play tournaments”.
The passion for this sport began almost accidentally. People with disabilities have the same rights as any other. First choose an activity and if it is a sport, know at what level to do it. “I never liked basketball, but after the traffic accident I had, my dad sent me to play a sport in 2014. First it was table tennis and then I trained basketball and I liked it,” he said. Guanuco spoke of those people who work for inclusion and said that “there are few people who work with disabilities and are role models. Many do it from the heart”, and indicated that “adapted sport is growing and there are good-level kids who can be part of a selected team.
It was a great emotion and happiness”. With a lot of willpower and overcoming all the obstacles that life has thrown at them, Cristian Guanuco and his teammates were able to achieve a national tournament. “There was a lot of sacrifice with the team. Wheelchair basketball must be taken into account more, because it has a good level in the province, ”he concluded. The basketball team is enjoying the well-deserved vacation, although many of them are looking forward to returning to the courts to train and have a fun time.
