• News The strange disqualification of one of the two Spaniards in the Winter Paralympic Games

"Competition has allowed me to get to know disability, pure disability. People without legs and arms, people with a thousand stories behind them... Until I started competing in cross-country skiing at the age of 19, I had gone to school and I had played roller hockey with people without disabilities and I hardly knew of cases. That is why, because of my childhood, because of my family, I have never flagged my illness. When I was born, my parents lived in Bolivia, they were aid workers, they came back and they adapted to the situation in a spectacular way. They didn't treat me any differently, they taught me that I could do anything", explains

Pol Makuri Redolad

(La Paz, Bolivia; 1991), who does not want to define himself as unique, although these days he has been : the only Spaniard in the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games that recently ended.


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Víctor González

left him alone in a selection that this edition has been a disaster.

An athlete, zero medals, numbers very far from the usual.


It was not Redolad's fault -Pol Makuri is a compound name-, who defended himself in all the cross-country skiing events, despite the disparity of competitors in his category, which includes physical disabilities.

In his case, this is called right hemiparesis, a cerebral palsy that prevents him from using his right hand, in addition to twisting his step on that side.


"It is the typical consequence of a stroke, although in my case it is from birth. Years ago I wrote a children's story and titled it "Half asleep". It is that: I have muscles, but they go to their ball. In my case, yes, It's a more physical issue than anything else, I don't suffer from epileptic seizures, which are common in this ailment", summarizes the skier who is also an athlete.

Because when he found out that he couldn't compete in roller hockey because of his limitations, he threw himself into the mountains, his parents' favorite pastime, and there he has fought in everything: skiing, yes, but also running in non-adapted trail running events such as the Olla de Núria, where last year he made history.


The 'no' to a fixed contract

With his enormous sideburns and his ponytail, in these Games he has fulfilled "a dream" for which he even gave up a career in his own business and a stable job.

"I studied graphic design and three years ago they offered me a full-time indefinite contract in a company where I worked part-time. But I said no. It was impossible to combine it with cross-country skiing, with competitions, with traveling and I preferred to live betting everything on sport", recalls who also has a specialty in leather craftsmanship -"I know how to make bags, belts..."- which he has somehow ended up using in these Games.

He offered to design his own competition clothing and the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE) accepted.


"Now I see myself as someone who is lucky. I am lucky to be able to transmit some values, to teach something to people. Look, on a visual level my disability is not very noticeable, I am only lame, and that is why a thousand things happen to me. Before to come to the Games, I was training in Vielha and other skiers approached me to ask me why I skied with only one pole, they even offered me one. And I was able to explain to them that it was not for pleasure, that it was because of the disability. They were very surprised, they freaked out I think that gave them something", concludes Redolad, who hopes to enjoy "the great logistics" of the winter Paralympic Games in four years in Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo.

So yes, it is to be expected, with much more company in the Spanish team.


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