Francisco Motero, para-badminton player of the WH1 category at the Club Deportivo Bádminton Huelva and recent champion of the European Para Games 2023, dreams of Paris 2024. Biker, with a degree in Business Administration and Management from the UHU, at only 25 years old saw his life take a turn after suffering a traffic accident that caused a spinal cord injury. Badminton was his lifeline and, currently, he owes everything to the sport that, together with his family, has made him forget many of the bad times that he has gone through in these almost eight years.
-Life changes completely in 2015. How does Francisco Motero face it and adapt to this new way of living?
-In December 2015 I had a traffic accident that caused me a spinal cord injury. With an accident of this magnitude, obviously, you see your life cut short. Your projects and your dreams come to an end. Beyond that accident, it’s not going to amount to anything. You think that you have hit rock bottom and that your life ends there in all areas from the moment they tell you that you are going to stay in a chair. It’s something you never expect to happen to you. When they tell you, obviously, you don’t know how to react or how to deal with it. You go through different psychological stages, different emotional ups and downs, it’s as if you had gone through mourning to be able to start from scratch. Say goodbye to the Paco from before and welcome the new me. Always counting on the support of my partner, my family and friends, which is very important, but the step has to be taken by oneself and be prepared. It is not easy to be mentally strong because it is a trauma, a very radical change, but you have to be prepared and be positive.
-Francisco has to adapt to a totally different day to day life and the day to day to him. What were those changes like?
-By having that change, that 180 degree turn in your life, your day changes day by day. From the moment you wake up and get out of bed. Getting up already costs you ten times more than it did before. Getting dressed, at first in time and effort, was an odyssey. Putting on a sock, a pair of pants… In the hospital, they have a part of therapy, in which they teach you everything, how to get on the bed, from the bed to the chair, get dressed… But at first, it requires a lot of time and effort and you get totally frustrated because it doesn’t work out. It’s something you have to work on every day to reduce that time and frustration. It is something normal that happens but these changes are difficult to accept despite the fact that seven years have passed, almost eight that will happen in December. Even when you get in the car, how much it costs you and how little it cost before. They are small steps that must be taken that cost a lot of time and work.
-Many people choose to do sports to escape from their routine. Did Francisco Motero choose sport as an alternative to face his new life?
-Once I can get on the chair and go down, at the Toledo hospital I had a routine marked with gym, occupational therapy to get back to life, but in a chair. In the afternoons, we had freedom and since there was a gym where I had many sports to practice, well from the beginning, after the nap, with my partner, we always went down and played ping-pong. In addition to interacting with other patients and their families, you could play tennis, basketball and many others. For a person without disabilities, sport is a highly advisable thing to escape from, to get rid of everyday life, but for a person after an accident like this it is essential, almost mandatory. You can do whatever you want, from chess, to being able to do archery, whatever you want, but it’s good to escape and have that moment to let off steam and forget about what’s happening and do something more or less physical, but have that little time in the that you forget that you are going through that bad moment.
New life
It is not easy to be mentally strong because it is a trauma, but you have to be prepared and be positive
-Why badminton? What motivated you to opt for the sport that has brought the most joy to Huelva?
-While in Toledo, at the National Hospital for Paraplegics, in the afternoons in the gym there were many sports. I tried everything, I even played paddle tennis for a while, but badminton was one of the many I tried while there. A boy, a monitor, came down to practice badminton with the patients and it was my first contact. I had never played before my injury, not at school or anything, I had never picked up a badminton racket. At first starting an adapted sport was frustrating and I spent more time picking up the shuttlecock from the ground than playing, but the bug bit me, my wife forced me to continue practicing it, to ride and I came out angry after the half hour or 45 minutes we were playing. Little by little I began to train with Miguel Ángel Polo, para-badminton coach in Toledo, and with Esther Torres, who already played and competed.
More than training, it got in the way of training, but I quickly reached an acceptable level and that was the important thing. It was given to me GOOD to be able to continue training and gain more ease. It was quick, a quick adaptation, and I think that was the main thing for me to opt for badminton.
There was a season when I alternated playing paddle tennis while competing nationally with badminton. It was crazy because he trained in the morning and afternoon in different places. With the chair it was a bit crazy. I opted for badminton, I liked it and I saw that it had potential. We also started to compete internationally and that caught my attention.
-What has been the path to becoming a professional badminton player? Did he imagine he would get to this point?
-The path has been very little by little. At no point was it in my head to become a professional, or to compete internationally, or to reach what I have reached. It was a process of very little by little and improving. I remember training many mornings super early. My partner told me “I don’t know how you like badminton, I don’t know how you’re doing,” but I had that desire to improve and evolve and, little by little, I did it with a lot of effort. The truth is that I did not even imagine or even consider reaching the point I have reached. Although I think we haven’t reached the limit so we have to keep working and see how far we get.
-What is the daily life of a European champion like? How do you combine your routine with training?
-Day-to-day life, in the end, is combining family and sport. We get up early, we take the children to school and put them away, we train, then we do the housework, we train again in the afternoon. Combine time with family and training. Although it may seem easy, some illness always gets in the way, the children get sick very often and I have to cut off some training, because I have to take them to the doctor, but in general, training and family are normal.
-Paris 2024 is just around the corner. Do you aspire to reach the Paralympic Games?
-Paris 2024 is a goal that we have set for ourselves and in which we are immersed. At the beginning of the year, a series of qualifying tournaments began. We have real options. Qualifications for the Games are complicated because there are few places in para-badminton, but we are going to try until the end. We have until February to have the World Cup in Thailand and, hopefully, qualify. It would be a dream come true. No Spanish player has been able to qualify for Tokyo, which were the first Paralympic Games in which para-badminton entered. I hope we can get it.
-What are your dreams and motivations?
-My dreams and motivations in the world of sports, obviously, are the Paralympic Games that are just around the corner. We have a chance, although we are aware and realistic that qualifying is difficult, there is a small chance and we are going to try. It would be a dream come true that has come about with the passage of time. When I started with para-badminton I was not considering the Games but in the end as we have been improving and reaching a good level it has been considered. Classification is a motivation. He would be the first Spaniard to qualify for this modality and it would be something historic. A real motivation. I have also achieved all of this thanks to all the sponsors from the Huelva City Council, Provincial Council and Junta of Andalusia and other private companies that support me personally.
Paris 2024 Paralympic Games
He would be the first Spaniard to qualify for this modality and it would be something historic
-The road will not be easy but Huelva will surely put itself back on the map thanks to sport. Are other Huelva athletes a mirror for Francisco?
-As you say, the path is never easy. You have to dedicate a lot of time and a lot of sacrifice, but hey, always carrying Huelva and Andalusia as your flag is a source of pride. Other Huelva athletes, on the topic of para-badminton and badminton, obviously, all the words and looks go to Carolina Marín. Now she has returned to the top, but she has always been there. She is an icon for, not only badminton, but for all athletes. Sacrifice, effort, results with more merit, because in this sport – our sport – we are always competing against the Asians. We get into their sport, fighting against them, who are always like a couple of steps above, and Carolina, it’s not that she has fought, it’s that she has beaten them several times and, always, she is a reference for badminton and for everyone the athletes.
2023-09-17 03:16:48
#Sport #person #accident #essential
