Written by Diana Pintus
Translated by Francesco Carboni
Closing a circle
The race of Lucas Prado, Brazilian blind sprinter specialist in100, 200 and 400 meters, started in 2007, here in Rio de Janeiro. It was Parapan American games . “So the best occasion to close my circle, to win another gold medal and to complete my career is definitely the Rio 2016 Paralympics Games”.
Actually Lucas, who currently lives in the state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, and is training in Sao Paulo and Sao Caetano, have begun to play Paralympic sports before 2007. It was right after the retinal detachment he suffered, in 2004, which left him completely blind. “After trying several therapies, without success, I found myself completely blind. A friend of mine was a futsal player and asked me to try it. I hesitated for a moment, but then I agreed to join him. I was very curious, because I could not understand how it was possible to know where the ball was without seeing it”.
Lucas starts to play football, but it does not excite him. Then he tries with goalball: “I played goalball until 2006, but it didn’t work as well. I don’t fit into team sports, because I am very strict in the trainings and I end up fighting with other athletes about it. Then a friend of mine, who was the trainer of Terezinha Guilherminha, invited me to try athletics. And finally there I got, in the place where I still am. After a year I got into the national team, and I have beaten the Brazilian record for the first time in seven years. In my first world championship, in Asia, I did not win any medals in my specialties, but I came home with a medal in the relay race. We are back to 2007, the year of the Parapan American Games of Rio, where Lucas begins to run over everyone else. He wins three medals, in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, and set the world record in the 100 and 200. The IPC nominees him the fastest blind of America. “I was the first Brazilian blind athlete to win this title. I was 22 years old, and I was close to get a very important medal: the Olympic one “.
And a year later, in Beijing 2008, he won three Olympic medals, Lucas. And he beats three world records: in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. An historical performance, again: ” never before any Brazilian Athlete, Paralympic or Olympic, had won three gold medals in these three specialities in the same Paralympics”.
In the New Zealand World Championship of 2011 he won three gold medals again, and in the Parapan American Games of Guadalajara there is just one missing victory, in 400 m.
Immediately before the Paralympics Games in London 2012, Lucas breaks his feet: “at the end I won two silver medals in the 400 and 100 m, while in the 200 meters I threw accidentally my guide off the track. That was a time of great sadness and reflection. “Lucas does not like to lose, and London 2012 represents, for him, the worst moment in his career. “I got injured, I lost the races and I lost all my sponsors. It was not easy to get back to trainings with confidence”.
The rebirth comes in 2013, Lyon World Cup. After 7 months of treatment in Rio de Janeiro Lucas takes back the world title, and improves again the world record. In 2014, however, he gets injured again, and in 2015 an injury to the pelvis doesn’t allow him to get a good results at Parapan American Games in Toronto. Completely recovered he goes to the Doha world Games, but he has bad luck, once again, and he breaks a tendon. He doesn’t give up! “This year, after another 7 months of treatment, I have already recovered the 90% of my condition. I am very confident, and I think I can do very good performance at the Paralympics. My dream is to participate in 5 consecutive Paralympics games, and I hope I will!”
The bee in the bonnet
Lucas tells: “before losing the sight I was a very active child, I loved all sports, even if I did not practices anyone at a competitive level..he sport has been the key to my wellness, it was my salvation, in a moment in which I was very sad. I believe that sport itself, Paralympic or not, has the power to open yourself to a different world, to bring you to see life in a different perspective. “
An important lesson motivated Lucas, a lesson given to him by his family:
“My parents have always told me: you can do whatever you want, but you have to do it well. You do not need to be the best in the world, but you have to be different. I always thought about this words : there is no need to be the best in the world, but it’s important to be different. What was the meaning of these words, I always wondered? I thought: I can be the best in the world, but to be the best in the world and be different? This is a different matter, right? That was always the bee in my bonnet: I had the dream of making the world record, but I am convinced that what really motivated me was this question of enhancing the difference, to show to the society, to people, to my friends and to all that the fact of having lost the sight does not mean that I can not make a difference. I think that’s my point: to show to the world that each one of us can make a difference, starting from his diversity. That being different from others is important, not only in sport. “
A very important mission, this one, and not at all easy to carry out: “I try not to underestimate me, I try to do everything that people who can see can do. I have my limits, of course but I try to show the world that I can, I get, I do. This effort motivates me”. And it can inspire others
“There’s a young Brazilian athlete, from Mato Grosso, that is just starting his career. In his city, (which is my home town) he used to say around that he wanted to be like me, even better than me, actually. I think this is great. It’s up to us to motivate young people to get closer to the sport, and providing them our knowledge, our experience”. Lucas as well had an idol at the beginning. José Armando Sayovo, from Angola, is the only athlete in his country who ever won an Olympic medal, so that he became as famous as a rock star in his country. Sayovo lost his sight by a mine during the civil war that bloodied his country, in 1998, and the first time someone proposed to him to run refused, thinking that they were making fun of him. “He is a very simple person, a fighter, he has faced many problems in his country and he have never lost his heart. For me he has been very inspiring. When I beat him in Beijing, after the race we sat down talking and he – champion in the three specialties in Athens 2004 – told me: I will try to win back the gold medal. This for me has been very inspiring. A true model, an athlete who knows how to lose, and doesn’t confuse the defeat with life out of the field … it’s just amazing! “
Because out of the field- Lucas likes to undress the role of difference and get back to normal: “I am very demanding, competitive, exemplary and workaholic in my work, but I’m calm in my private life. I like watching movies, traveling. My life is a life of good and bad times, as the life of anybody else. I am convinced that the important thing is to do what we love”.