He was born with a congenital malformation that has by no means restricted him The younger Cantabrian is champion of Spain, Europe, and fourth on this planet rating of the tailored golf circuitAn instance of enchancment, NIUS confesses his sporting goals: “to be primary on this planet and signify to Spain in a Paralympics”
Juan Postigo Arce (Santander, 1996) continues to be very younger, however he already has a profession filled with successes in tailored golf. He is the present champion of Spain and Europe, titles that he has revalidated for a number of consecutive years. He occupies the fourth place on this planet rating and has simply gained the Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi, the distinguished match on the G4D tailored golf circuit.
His effort and his need to excel have made him overcome all of the boundaries that life has put in his means. This Spaniard was born with a congenital malformation in his proper leg, a lot shorter, and along with his foot glued to the stump. They operated on him, with out success, as much as 7 occasions to attempt to lengthen it. In 2014 his foot was amputated to place a greater prosthesis than the one he was carrying and the intervention didn’t go nicely both. His nerve was irreversibly broken making it inconceivable to suit any prosthesis. So he determined to play and win with out her.
Question. Do you already know that your story conjures up many individuals?
Reply. Yes, however I do not really feel like a job mannequin, actually. For me, an instance of enchancment is a working mom with 4 youngsters, that’s really admirable. Mine is simpler. I used to be fortunate that my dad and mom educated me very nicely, they made me conscious from the time I used to be born of what was taking place to me they usually gave me the instruments to get forward. They had been by no means condescending, they handled me like one in all her six youngsters, they let me fall and rise up by myself, they didn’t overprotect me and thus they achieved their objective, which is to be a 100% impartial particular person.
P. They additionally instilled in you the game bug
A. That was basic. Before taking part in golf, I swam, skied, sailed…they signed me up for every part, I believe for the aim of socializing with the opposite youngsters with none form of boundaries. It was their means of creating me really feel ‘regular’, of ‘inserting me’ into the society of that point, these ideas nonetheless sound sturdy, however I believe that was their concept and the reality is that it labored for them.
Q. What use has that competitiveness that you just discovered because you had been little been of use to you?
R. Uff, rather a lot. Today it’s important to be sturdy, it’s important to be quick, it’s important to be sensible. And sport and competitors educate you that, to enhance your self. It’s laborious to say, however folks with disabilities are born with a deficit in one thing and we’ve got to develop a barely extra highly effective, more durable, extra aggressive intuition to have the ability to attain the extent of others.
Q. You have developed it to the utmost in golf. How did you get to this sport?
A. Well, by probability, once I was 12 or 13 years outdated, my grandfather began taking part in golf as a result of he was retired. I used to be the one grandson who dared to accompany him, and that’s how I found golf due to him. First got here the interest after which the eagerness for a sport that for years has been the middle of my life. Sometimes it even turns into somewhat obsessive. It’s my job, my interest, that is the place I’ve my predominant group of associates… my entire life revolves round this sport, however I like that it is like that. I can not think about my life with out golf.
Q. What emotions or sensations does it trigger you if you play?
R. I be at liberty, I really feel full. Within the sphere I’m not disabled. Golf is an especially inclusive sport, a sport that requires no lodging. That is to say, I play on the identical programs, in the identical situations and with the identical golf equipment that Tiger Woods can play with, or with which my countryman and benchmark Severiano Ballesteros performed.
And it is not one thing that solely I believe, my colleagues on the tailored circuit suppose the identical. Within the sphere we don’t really feel the constraints or the little issues that we’ve got on a day-to-day foundation. In golf we’re another and we don’t really feel that distinction with the others.
Q. There are extra boundaries exterior than contained in the golf course…
R. Yes, sure, after all, particularly architectural. You do not know the variety of boundaries that individuals with disabilities discover on the road. On the golf course every part is way less complicated, the house is open and shifting may be very simple. There are widespread gestures that for me signify a complication off the sphere, for instance, I can not go down the road speaking on the telephone, I can not do it as a result of I haven’t got fingers to do it, I would like them to hold my crutches. That does not occur on the golf course as a result of I do not go there with my telephone, nor do many different issues occur to me that occur to me on the road. It is a really comfy house for me.
Q. By telling your story in faculties and institutes you might be serving to to interrupt down essentially the most troublesome boundaries, psychological ones, and social prejudices.
R. I’ve already given many talks, not solely in Spain, however in numerous Latin American international locations, in England, in lots of locations. And the suggestions from younger folks is wonderful. It may be very gratifying to see how instantly they cease Juan under the waist and take a look at him above, they neglect about your incapacity and join with you, along with your very important historical past and with the message that you just transmit to them in a short time. I attempt to convey to them that we can’t ignore our actuality and that we should adapt to it, not settle, however adapt to get essentially the most out of our lives.
Q. What is the sporting dream that you just nonetheless have to satisfy?
R. I wish to change into primary on this planet. Now I’m the fourth, I’m there very shut. That can be a superb objective after which win the golf Majors, that are the USA Open and the British Open, which I have not gained both of them but. And now, because the fruits of my profession, attending to take part in a Paralympic Games representing Spain and if I get a diploma or a medal, it could already be the best happiness.
Q. Everything is in your fingers besides the most recent, as a result of golf shouldn’t be but a Paralympic sport…
A. True. It meets all the necessities besides one to be, and it’s the parity of female and male altetas. The International Olympic Committee calls for that there be equal numbers of female and male athletes, and in golf proper now there should not sufficient girls taking part in at a excessive degree to make it to the Paralympics.
Q. And why do you suppose there’s a lack of girls on this sport?
R. Well, as a result of girls’s sports activities, sadly, have lagged behind males’s sports activities and the identical factor occurs in tailored sports activities. But I’m positive that that is going to vary quickly, it’s already altering, increasingly more assets are being allotted to put it up for sale. And nicely, statistically, there’s a very related variety of disabled girls to the variety of disabled males, so there have to be athletes on the market that we’ve not discovered but. I’m assured that golf will quickly be Paralympic. I hope to have the ability to dwell it, to have the ability to compete and already retire with the satisfaction of getting participated within the Paralympics.
Q. Is golf STILL an elitist sport?
R. It has been, certainly. But it’s much less and fewer. Look, I dwell in Cantabria and I can inform you that my dad and mom should not wealthy, nor are my grandparents. We are a working center class and I’ve performed golf. Here we’ve got three public fields, two from the Government of Cantabria and one from the Santander City Council, that are absolutely accessible to everybody. Today I consider that it’s not an financial query that individuals can play golf, though it additionally relies upon rather a lot on the place you reside, after all.
Q. Why are there such good Cantabrian golfers?
R. I believe we’ve got all sucked it a bit, proper? The determine of Severiano Ballesteros has marked an amazing variety of professionals for 30 years. All the coaches we’ve got in Cantabria proper now had been associates of Seve, they performed with Seve they usually transmit to us, to their gamers, that need to work, that need to make an effort, that creativity for which Severiano was characterised. And nicely, I believe we’ve got it comparatively simple in Cantabria to play golf. I already informed you, we’re a neighborhood of 350,000 inhabitants and we’ve got 7,000 golf licenses. The highest ratio in golf licenses in Spain. And that’s due to all the general public fields that exist, as I informed you earlier than, that it was additionally Severiano Ballesteros’s obsession to make public fields in Cantabria. Everything is intently linked to the determine of Seve.
I journey the entire world taking part in golf and I notice the relevance of Severiano. Severiano Ballesteros is thought all through the world. I believe that he, along with Julio Iglesias, will be the most worldwide determine we’ve got in Spain.
Q. He has marked a number of generations. What mark would you want to go away in golf?
R. I used to be speaking about it the opposite day with a superb pal, Brendan Lawlor, an Irishman who’s quantity two on this planet rating of the tailored golf circuit. After I gained the match in Abu Dhabi, having a snack within the lodge pool, he informed him… hopefully in 20 years there can be an enormous tailored golf circuit and we can be seen because the pioneers in all this. I might love for many individuals with a incapacity like mine, or some other, to have the ability to make a dwelling from golf. I wish to open the way in which for all these folks with disabilities who need to apply sports activities, any form of sport, as a result of it’s a vitamin for the soul, it’s a big shot of vanity. Also present them that it’s doable for them to make it their lifestyle. I believe it is doable. We are on the way in which. Hopefully we will get it.