Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 4 2007 (IPS) – Sports competitions for the disabled help parents and educators overcome the pitfalls of overprotection. Ten-year-old Andrea began swimming as a toddler, and trains twice a month in the ocean. Her mother says she has never been given special treatment, even though she has been blind from birth.
To attend the Benjamin Constant Institute for the blind in Rio de Janeiro, Andrea has to get up at 4:00 AM every morning, because she lives two hours away by bus, in the outlying neighbourhood of Campo Grande.
Besides her academic subjects, she studies dance and practices sports at school. Her favourite is swimming, which she does twice a week.
My daughter tells me Mama, people have prejudices, they think we #39re stupid, not just that we can #39t see , her mother, Albertina Meirelles da Costa, tells IPS.
Every two weeks, Andrea goes to Praia Vermelha, a Rio de Janeiro beach.
The rest of my family worries. They tell me I #39m crazy to let her go into the water like that, especially in the sea, but my daughter loves it. It makes her feel great, and she dreams of representing her country in some competition when she #39s older, says da Costa.
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Dr. Ari Zekcer, an orthopedic surgeon, says running, playing, jumping and even falling are a normal part of growing up for any child. But when adults are dealing with a disabled child, they tend to believe that they have to be with the child all the time, and they even keep the child from engaging in certain activities and making certain movements.
The head of Zekcer Sports Medicine, a private clinic, tells IPS that overprotection is very common, especially in the case of visually impaired children.
The result is a child whose self-confidence, spatial awareness and motor coordination stop developing, he says. No one can develop what they don #39t use, and when that person grows up, their independence can be seriously compromised.
Andrea, who has always been treated the same as her siblings, does not have that problem. The independence that she has gained by practicing swimming and other sports makes her feel good and gives her self-esteem, and she is strong and tough, physically, says her mother.
One of the things that Andrea likes best is to just float at the bottom of the pool or the ocean, where she feels a deep sense of calm.
She handles herself in the water better than any of us; she feels the movement of the waves and hears the sounds, and always knows where the shore is, says da Costa.
In fact, she once saved her cousin s life. The little girl was drowning, and none of us adults had noticed. Andrea is brave and fast. Everyone congratulated her, she was so proud, her mother recalls.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that disabled people make up around 10 percent of the global population, including five percent with mental disabilities, two percent with physical disabilities, 1.5 percent with hearing problems, 0.5 percent visually impaired, and 1.0 percent with multiple disabilities.
Zekcer says that in most cases, sports are beneficial. Innumerable studies show that people who practice sports show improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness, cholesterol levels, mood, and ability to perform day-to-day activities.
Practicing sports helps the disabled gain independence, spatial cognition and motor coordination, overcome their specific difficulties, and develop agility, balance and movement control, the orthopaedist explains.
In addition, sports help them develop a greater capacity for social integration, and they get involved in more activities, while their concentration improves and they gain a better understanding of rules, which boosts their integration socially and in the workplace and the family, he says.
The southern Brazilian city of Sao Paulo hosted the IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation) World Championship and Games from Jul. 28-Aug. 8, and the Para Pan American Games were held Aug. 12-19 in Rio de Janeiro.
The third edition of the Para Pan American Games involved competition in 10 sports, including wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball and swimming for the visually impaired.
Zekcer says sports competitions for the disabled should receive more encouragement and concrete support from governments.
He underlines the importance of such events in raising awareness among the disabled as well as society at large, and in providing examples of people who have overcome their difficulties. Some physically disabled people only realise that those with special needs are not invalids when they watch these sports competitions, says Zekcer.
Guilherme Borrajo, 25, is one of these athletes. His left leg was amputated in 2001, after he was run over by a bus outside the Maracaná football stadium.
Today he gets around on crutches. But he formed part of the Brazilian volleyball team in the Para Pan American Games. He says the sport, which he already played before the accident, has helped him overcome many of his fears.
After the accident I was really sad. At first I thought I would have more limitations than I have actually run into, he tells IPS.
Borrajo, who was voted best setter on his team during the 2006 Sitting Volleyball World Championship in the Netherlands, says the support of his family has been the most important thing for me.
Since the accident, volleyball has brought him even more benefits than it did when he just played for fun, in terms of physical training, self-confidence and personal realisation, he says.
