Read the full story here:
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Here we are, here we are Juan.
00:20Of course, if you gave me the chance to be born with two legs, I would take it.
00:26That's the reality again.
00:28But I have to say that I am very lucky to live the life I live.
00:34I have a great girlfriend, I have a great family, I have a lot of great friends.
00:40I'm playing golf full time, so there's some more challenges day by day.
00:46But the life I do live by sharing my experience, but by doing a lot of things related at this
00:52point with my disability, like to have two legs.
00:55But I have this, and my life is really a whole life.
01:00I do everything I want, and I just love the way I live.
01:07They didn't know it, because I'm 27 now, at that time the technology was not as nowadays.
01:14So actually when I was born, the doctor gave me to my mother, said to her, this is not
01:20good.
01:22Then the doctor took me again and saw that I had a disability.
01:25But the way they teach me in life was really good.
01:30They were brave.
01:31They tried to find solutions at the same time, they didn't want me to be that way all my
01:35life.
01:36Unfortunately, it has been like that.
01:37But their intention was to be able to walk with two legs, it was not possible.
01:43But they really taught me how to live with one.
01:45They really let me make my own mistakes.
01:48They didn't overprotect me.
01:50I think that was very brave of them.
01:51And the way they wanted to do it was through sport.
01:54I've been swimming for a long time, I love playing football, I was sailing for a long
01:58time also.
01:59They wanted to teach me life about sport, about how competitive you have to be to be
02:04able to make your own life.
02:07Because every day is quite a little competition for us.
02:13I was lucky to get into golf, because my grandfather started playing golf when I was 11, 12 years
02:19old.
02:20I started to play with him golf, and I really loved the sport.
02:23Before golf, I had the chance to practice with many others at a high level.
02:27And golf was the only one that you could really play against, and we could play together.
02:32The disability didn't count in that sport, so I think that really got on the game a lot
02:37for me.
02:38The first year, I was 36 handicapped, then I was down to 18 in one year, then to 9 in
02:42the next year, then to 4, and then to scratch.
02:45I started playing golf with my prosthetic on my right leg.
02:48At one point, I had to decide, due to some operations, that I couldn't use it again.
02:54But my swing was always quite natural.
02:57I learned by seeing.
02:59I think it was sub-natural.
03:00We have worked on, obviously, strengthening my body to be able to hit farther and to be
03:05more stable.
03:06But the mechanics in the swing, we don't really touch them a lot.
03:10But we are based on the ball flight, the sound of the ball, much more old school.
03:15Obviously, when I need to find some numbers, I use TrackMan, I use every single technology.
03:19But we try to be quite old school at every single situation.
03:23I really enjoy practicing, really love being around the golf course.
03:27I love doing this, and that's why I put so much effort on it.
03:31And I think that's why my level to now has been so fast and so good.
03:38I really feel that I have worked a lot to make G4D be on this stage.
03:43I've been involved with the European Disabled Golf Association from 10, 12 years ago, and
03:48we have worked a lot together.
03:50We have reached a level that now we can showcase that disabled players are really competitive.
03:56We play on tour venues every single week, and we score very well.
04:00We have our number one, which is Kip Popper.
04:03The level is so high, and I think the G4D Tour has to keep growing.
04:08That's the pathway we have to follow.
04:10We need to keep going, get more players into the game, and get the best players to be able
04:15to play these events.
04:18We have to differentiate sometimes between social golf and competitive golf, and we're
04:22talking about competition right here.
04:24We're talking about great golf players, but they have a disability.
04:28But first of all, they are golf players, and elite golf players.
04:31So we can't forget that sometimes, and sometimes we do.
04:34This way, you can see from back injuries to missed limbs.
04:39I mean, there's a lot of different things and big disadvantages in life, but the reality
04:44is that when we are out of the golf course, we don't see our disabilities so big as we
04:50see them outside.
04:52I think we feel free, and we feel complete on the golf course.
04:59Short term, for this season, I didn't have any wound last year, so I want to change that.
05:05I hope I can do that tomorrow.
05:07And I would like to win the Order of Merit for this year.
05:12I won't play next event, which is in Singapore, because I want to rest a little bit.
05:16But the rest of the events, I will be ready to make a few good results.
05:21And long term, basically, is get to the Paralympics.
05:24I think to any athlete, the biggest dream is to represent their country on the Paralympics.
05:31And that's where I think I could end my career.
05:35I need to get there to be able to say, I'm finished.
05:39So that will be my biggest dream long term.