“I am competing in the competition of my life”, acknowledges Gerard Descarrega. We have met in Seville with him two-time Paralympic 400 meter T11 champion (blind people) -Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020- to accompany you in your rehabilitation. On February 3 Achilles tendon ruptured in a competition. The normal recovery period for this type of injury is between 6 and 8 months, but in his case he had to speed it up. to try to reach the Paris Paralympic Games (August 28 to September 8).
We are witnesses of titanic effort you are making every day in this race against the clock because his goal is not only to reach the Games, it goes further: “I don’t want to go there knowing that I am three seconds below my marks, I will only go if I can be competitive, if I can fight. I’m not going to walk around and say that I have recovered and am going to the Games. I have already been to three -debuted in London 2012- and the experience is great, but I am not training to live the experience but to be competitive“, he says with ambition.
I don’t want to go to Paris knowing that I’m three seconds off my marks, I’ll only go if I can be competitive
His name was in all the medal pools for the next Paralympic Games, but the injury changed the entire roadmap he had prepared for Paris. He had been having discomfort in his Achilles tendon for a month and a half before that fateful February 3. She had the guaranteed nominal place thanks to your silver in the previous year’s World Cup, which had been held precisely in Paris. He only had to revalidate the minimum.
“As it was very simple, I wanted to get rid of it now. I had several MRIs and tests, they told me that the pain was due to another muscle, not the Achilles. The medical service told me that if I infiltrated it there was no risk of rupture and I forced it,” he recalls.
But on 5th street of the La Cartuja athletics trackthe facilities where you train daily, with 10 meters to go to reach the finish line and certify the minimum in the competition it happened. “I heard the crack. From the beginning I already knew that I had broken my Achilles tendon because my body collapsed forward. I noticed how it broke, it was like an ax blow, a scissor blow… I made the last straight line gritting my teeth because I It hurt like hell,” he recalls.
I noticed how my Achilles broke, it was like an ax blow, a scissor blow… I did the last straight line clenching my teeth because it hurt like hell.
Two operations
At that moment the dream for which he had been working all year seemed to disappear in one fell swoop. “It crosses your mind that everything is over, that the year is going to take off and that neither the Paralympic Games nor anything at all. It was hard and at that moment it was like falling into a hole. You don’t know very well where to hold on. You have to accept it little by little,” she confesses sincerely.
“It’s an injury that had always scared me a lot because For a sprinter, the Achilles is what helps you propel yourself forward.. It’s like if you cut off a dealer’s hand. He’s going to have a hard time shuffling the cards later,” he adds.
But Descarrega is not about wasting time complaining but rather about trying to find solutions. On February 6, he underwent surgery at the CEMTRO Clinic in Madrid. by doctors Guillén and Fernández Jaén. All was complicated by an infection. After a month and a half the scab fell off and the wound began to ooze. She was full of pus. “My body was rejecting everything and I had a very bad infection,” explains Descarrega.
I’m leaving my skin to get there
Natalia, his nurse, was doing daily cures until it subsided and he could return to the operating room on May 9 so that they could finish cleaning it completely. His skin has a hard time healing, but he is already immersed in full rehabilitation. “I feel like an athlete again,” he says, although He has not yet been able to train on a track again.but at least has already been able to take strides in an antigravity machine.
Physio, machines and gym
But let’s go in parts. The first appointment of the day We will accompany you to the physio at 9:00 a.m.. “We started physical therapy a month ago, but the progress is being important. We had problems with the healing process due to the infection and that made us the physiotherapy part and the active part were delayed a little to prevent the tendon from suffering. But the evolution is quite good,” says Rogelio Silgado, his physiotherapist.
After an hour of treatment, not only manual but also with machines, we moved to the Center of Equilibrium, to which Descarrega goes twice a week. That’s where He has begun to take his first steps. They use cutting-edge technology that helps accelerate rehabilitation processes safely. The first session is with diamagnetic pumpwhich costs about 60,000 euros.
The Spanish soccer team, for example, has one. “It controls inflammation, facilitates wound closure and repairs tissues. It prepares it so that you can put loads on it later,” he explains. Alvaro Bejarano, doctor specializing in Sports Medicine and owner of the Center. The treatment is half an hour.
From there, Gerard goes to a inductive machine who is in charge of the non-invasive neurostimulation. “We can’t take any steps back, that’s why we stimulate the nerve without having to use a needle,” Bejarano continues.
First steps on a special machine
After 15 minutes, it’s time to move on to a treadmill that uses an anti-gravity system originating from NASA. It is the Alter G, which costs about 50,000 euros. “Allows you to apply a percentage of your body weight. For example, in the case of Gerard, who weighs 67, we set it to 80% and It’s as if I ran with 13 kilos lesswhich reduces discomfort, it is like removing a burden. He has been doing the race adaptation period here for two weeks.. His brain begins to run again, to train again and it is the previous part to doing it on the track in the shortest time possible,” adds the doctor.
“A little more”says Descarrega. It refers to increasing the pace of the race. He had started at 4.5 km/h and finished the last 8 minutes at 14. In total he has been 25. “I don’t come for a walk”, he says between laughs. And, after a long time, she sweats again, He starts to feel sporty again.
From there we move to Expo City Gymwhere Guillermo Rojo and José María Marvizón, your guides, await you on the athletics tracks. His coach Luis Rodríguez, in continuous contact with Rogelio and Álvaro, in addition to the Medical Services of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, is the one who dictates his daily work. He first lifts weight (up to 100 kilos) and then works adductors, the femoral part, does incline press, quadriceps, shoulder… Finish and smile. There is one less day left to return to the slopes.
