Paralympic athletes run out of funding for their competition prostheses

• Overcoming: The legless boy who conquered Griezmann with his stunts

A traffic accident changed the life of Sara Andrés Barrio, in 2011, and another of Jordi Madera Jiménez, in 2000. Today both are elite athletes , despite having suffered a lower double amputation, in the case of Sara, or a complete spinal cord injury, in Jordi's.

They are both athletes and they both train with their minds set on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. They train with the mind ... and with the body. A body that needs the constant support of a running prosthesis (12,000 euros each foot) and a racing chair (5,000 euros if you buy it abroad, at the factory, as he usually does, or 7,000 euros if they send it to you , separate chassis). Everything they pay for.

To this we must add the prostheses that Sara needs to walk (about 4,000 euros per foot) and Jordi's street chair (between 3,500 and 5,000 euros). In this case, Social Security finances a small percentage that ranges between 15% and 30%: 600 euros per foot (only the prosthesis) and 1,100 for the chair.

Sara and Jordi are two of the approximately 1,800 physically disabled people who are federated with a state license, according to José Alberto Álvarez, president of the Spanish Federation of Sports for People with Physical Disabilities (FEDDF). That is to say, they are many more, since there are autonomous federates and amateur athletes.

This same summer, the order that updates the ortho-prosthetic catalog of which neither Sara nor Jordi are a part came into force, since it does not finance the support material for the sport . Thereafter, a period of six months was opened for companies to communicate their orthoprosthetic products, which ends in December.

The next step is for the Ministry of Health to publish the common catalog to all the autonomous communities, but these can be expanded. After 10 months of the publication of said catalog, only products that are part of that list may be financed.

The impotence of not having 100% material

«People who have more resources change the wheels every year. I can't afford it and I try to give them all the life I can. My wheels, a year, are very much given of themselves: the carbon begins to flex and the wheels no longer go so fast. Even the racing chair also has a suffering and the ideal would be to change it every year or two, ”explains Madera, who has endured up to seven years with a chair ,“ repairing parts and welding and painting it again, ”he says.

And it refers to the helplessness he feels for wanting to have 100% material when competing. «Since 2005, I competed with the national team in the Mediterranean Games of Almeria, until 2019 they are already 14 years at the highest level, and it is very difficult to accept each season with the motivation of the first day, because you are the same in terms of aid. Even so, even if you have 100% material, if the mind and body do not train them at 110%, do not expect maximum performance. You can have a Ferrari, but if you don't know how to drive it ... ».

Jordi Madera, taking out his competition chair from the car to train. JAUME COSIALLS

It is not your case. Jordi Madera won the Barcelona Marathon this year, was fifth in the 2018 New York ... and has rope for more, with or without help. «Now I have a scholarship from the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), which is 250 euros per month. Besides, I have to pay out of my pocket to a cyclist who helps me set rhythms on the road and warns cars. I try to have him two days a week to improve my performance, ”he says. He still remembers how just two weeks before going to the Paralympic Games in Rio they were offered 2,000 euros to choose between him and another wheelchair athlete: “They told us that there was only money for a wheelset, and that we chose who they were going for . We said that that could not be, and we exchanged it for tubular (bedrooms) for both of us ».

The CPE has grants to 150 athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Games: 130 athletes, of which 45 are physically disabled, and 20 support athletes. They are part of the Paralympic Objective Support Plan (ADOP), which began with the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games and has now reached its fourth edition.

Exaggeratedly expensive

The CPE had already asked for sports equipment to be included in the new orthopedic catalog, as explained by Alberto Jofre, director of the CPE and Paralympic swimmer (at the Paralympic Games in New York '84 he won four medals and a world record): «The Ministry Health is sensitive and there is a will to include it, but it will be for the next catalog. It is a matter of budgetary priorities ». The big problem, according to Jofre, is that «we have to democratize sports equipment. If I have a disabled girl, the bicycle can cost me 4,000 euros; if not, 300 euros. After three years, another 4,000 euros must be spent for another size larger ». A complaint by Jofre is that "the material is exaggeratedly expensive:" The basic sport is almost at the same price as the competition. "

Jordi also remembers those who are worse than him: «I have a background and I will be 40 years old, but there are people who do not leave their house because it is difficult for them to climb streets. I would like to invest more in monitoring a person with disabilities, and see that for us, sports are a necessity. They only remember us when we are on the podium ».

Therefore, Madera vindicates administrations that do not consider them to be mere numbers on the computer and also examine income. "I have a full disability pension of 1,800 euros, which helps me pay the floor, water, electricity" and ... for a couple of months, who has been a father, the expenses of his baby.

That lack of visibility is also perceived by Sara Andrés Barrio, 32, who does not have the most pronounced note for being a woman: «In the Paralympics we are equally influenced by not having visibility, both men and women. It is harder for us to have an impact and be as well known as other Olympic athletes, ”and mentions Chema Martínez, Ruth Beitia or Lidia Valentín.

Sara has a clear motto: "I'd rather not have feet and know where I'm going, than to have them and be lost." Double bronze medalist of the world in 200 and 400 meters smooth, last May he broke the world record in long jump.

«When I won both medals, those tests were Olympic at that time, but it was decided to remove them from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and I was left without entering the ADOP Plan. If the test has ceased to exist, even if you won, you do not enter. It is a plan that rewards who has won a medal, but not who has not yet won it. Now I have had to convert and I make 100 meters smooth, ”he says while transmitting his perplexity because the sport is not subsidized.

«It is incredible, because sport helps social integration, so that your health improves ... If someone does sports in an amateur way, just to improve their health, they will never be able to buy a prosthetic career, as a sprinter, more professionals...". She has achieved it by making brands and with the help of sponsors, but at first it was not so easy.

"I began to compete with some that were to jog, somewhat cheaper, but still cost 7,000 euros each," he says. Besides, Sara goes to the technician every two weeks "to make alignment changes, if I have any chafing ... It's like going to the workshop with a car: as you have more mileage you have to fix it." It is something you should do with both your walking prostheses and those of competing . And it goes to detail. «There are times when you are more swollen or the stumps are thicker and you have to adjust it. That is why the prosthetic is essential. Every year, more or less, you have to change the lace [hard part that holds the leg] because the stump fluctuates ». And it is that Sara explains that, apart from the prosthesis itself, there is the aforementioned lace (which is worth about 2,000 euros) and the liner (sock that protects the skin), which costs 900 euros.

Last January, thanks to its sponsors (the Cantabria Labs and Sanitas laboratory), he was able to quit his job as a Primary teacher, "I love it", to focus on his training. “It was a lot of working with children for eight hours, then going to train, to the physiotherapist… In 24 hours I didn't have time. Now, thanks to this help, I can pay the mortgage and the basics, ”he says.

The German Jens Müller is his prosthetic: “The rest of Europe is better than Spain. This looks like north Africa. In Germany, the sport is 100% subsidized. If the rehabilitating doctor considers that a patient can benefit from a sports prosthesis, the prescription and that's it. With the approval of the doctor and a subsequent check certifying that the patient uses it, he can take it, ”explains Müller, who has participated in some meetings to negotiate the new orthopedic catalog. Maybe by then the Paralympic athletes of La Roja can compete without having to scratch their own pocket to have access to the prostheses they use when they represent the Spanish National Team.

"We will continue to insist that the catalog be opened to sport"

The Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI) will continue to pressure the Government to include some of the collective's demands, such as financing of sports support material. "We have not succeeded, and claimed intensely and extensively, but the refusal of the Ministry of Health and the Autonomous Communities was strong," says Luis Cayo Pérez Bueno, president of (CERMI).

Cayo emphasizes that apart from the greater expense that health authorities consider that it would entail, for them sport is a luxury, not a basic activity and, therefore, there are other priorities: "It is an outdated mentality, inconsistent, but they are the decision makers and not we always manage to overcome their resistance. Sports are not considered as what they are: a social good of the first magnitude to which all persons with disabilities have the right and that public authorities must promote and promote. "

Even so, he does not give up: "We will continue to insist, pressing for the catalog to open to sport, to everything that is important to the person. The complaints, that there are, of athletes, federations, paralympic committee ... are more that founded ", sentence.

The problem also lies in the fact that the autonomous communities have different catalogs, some from almost 20 years ago, as Daniel-Aníbal García, secretary of organization of the Spanish Confederation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities (COCEMFE) points out: "I believe that The Ministry of Health sees it strange that a benefit for sport leaves the part of Health. I know the subsidies made by the regional sports councils for the purchase of adapted material, "he emphasizes. Separate catalog, Cayo, of CERMI, also refers to the new Sports Law "that the Government has promised and must be approved by Parliament. It must be the Sports Law of diversity, of women and people with disabilities. We will display in the coming months all the pressure and advocacy capacity for this to be so. "

In that sense, it alludes to the recently presented White Paper on the Sport of People with Disabilities in Spain, which reflects deficiencies and proposals that it hopes will be incorporated. It is promoted by CERMI, the Spanish Paralympic Committee and the ONCE Foundation, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Health.

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