Susana Rodríguez Gacio: "There is a gym for the mind"

This is the story of a woman who turned her blindness into a vital engine. Susana Rodríguez Gacio (Vigo, 33 years old) was born with ocular-cutaneous albinism, a disease that is distinguished from the outside by very white hair and skin that cannot be seen from the inside. As a child, she competed with her sister and her classmates because she wanted to be like everyone else. Today he has learned that not everyone can win, and when he affirms that "wanting is power", he talks about changing the objective when, despite the effort, a goal resists. She learned it by getting a place to compete in the Beijing Olympics and being, however, unfairly excluded from the group. He knew then that, once again, he must reinvent himself and transform his anger into a future victory.

After the upset of Beijing 2008, he assumed that an alternative future should be sought. Sport had been everything to her, but she decided that, in addition to training and beyond being a physical therapist, she was going to become a doctor. The other objective was standard: he wanted to reach the Olympics. He did it by working and dreaming. "If I had not opted for what I like the most, swimming, I would not be in Tokyo now," he specifies. Since then, he has not stopped racking up victories. If her academic curriculum is brilliant - it was the best in the class - her sporting career, with three world golds, goes back to "the Olympics on the terrace", when her sister Patricia, two years older than her, chose ball sports "To win" and she was concentrating on physical exertion. His parents,an anesthesiologist and a teacher who had come to pick her up in Lanzarote to accompany her to the High Performance Center in Granada, let her do it. She is convinced that this is the best way to help: giving freedom. The rest is an apprenticeship through which you have to go through and character. And yours seems capable of moving the world.

When did you know that you would achieve what you set out to do?

I don't think I'm going to achieve everything I set out to do.

But frustrations must be redirected.

I'm not talking about dreaming, I'm talking about getting to work.

Since I can remember I know that the effort brings me closer to what I want.

You may not get everything, but I knew at the same time that I could not see and that with work I managed to do the same things as others.

My sister Patricia was my reference.

He did what she did, with more work but he did it.

He was more with her than with his parents.

Weren't they overprotecting her?

They learned not to.

Parents tend to be overprotective, and people with disabilities more, but character can.

When I was 11 years old, I wanted to play soccer and I needed an authorization.

They told me they didn't think it was appropriate, but they signed it.

I realized right away that they were right.

Have you always had it?

No. And they have recognized it.

They were very brave.

I think now that when I wanted to go to England at the age of 12 to be with a family it must have worried them, but my sister had gone and I was the same.

What's up?

Brilliant.

The family had not been told that he hardly saw.

But I explained my stuff to them and came back the following year.

I was already telling them that I wanted to go to the Games.

When I went to Rio they wrote to me.

Anyone who knows me knows that all my life I have wanted to go to the Olympic Games.

Susana Rodríguez Gacio, doctor and paralympic triathlon athlete, photographed at the High Performance Center of Granada (July 2021) Papo Waisman

What do you like about soccer if you can't see or play it?

Football heard on the radio is the most exciting thing I've ever heard.

My father is from Real Madrid.

And I also.

Aren't you afraid of having to be strong all your life?

We do not have programmed how strong we can be.

You face situations that you didn't know you could overcome.

Are you talking about a defeat?

Of worse things like losing someone.

Was the worst thing about confinement not being able to touch patients or not being able to train?

The worst thing was knowing what was happening.

The important thing was the health problem.

But I think they did wrong by interrupting the lives of so many athletes.

It is true that we are looking for life, but they should have allowed us to train at some time.

In sports you cannot telework and if you stop training you lose everything you trained, which is everything.

The Paralympic committee sent us a treadmill that weighs 135 kilos - imagine taking it up the stairs - and a gym in Vigo lent me a rowing machine - which is still in my parents' living room.

"Wait, Mom: there has to be a line for Ryanair."

The conversation is on the phone.

During the interview, Susana is on her way to the High Performance Center of Granada.

You are about to isolate yourself in a bubble of athletes.

You have little time.

We decided to dedicate it to portraying her.

We spoke twice.

At the airport, he does business and talks without losing concentration.

You can hear how he argues to be able to bill the tandem: "In Australia they would not let me bill for 200 grams."

And what he did?

I started to cry.

When you travel the world, you must have resources.

Have her parents come to pick her up?

Yes, but I have to guide them, they don't know anything [laughs].

Susana Rodríguez Gacio, doctor and paralympic triathlon athlete, photographed at the High Performance Center of Granada (July 2021) Papo Waisman

Susana usually lives in Santiago, with two colleagues from the hospital: "One pulmonologist and the other internist."

They worked at the covid plant and, when their colleagues began to be infected, they decided to return to their parents' house.

And it was invaded with training apparatus.

He lived two faces of the pandemic: the urge to heal and the interruption of the dream of his life.

I was clear about the health emergency, but touching was forbidden and I had to relearn how to relate to the world which, in my work, is with my hands.

How does someone who dedicates their life to preparing for something that may not come feel like?

The frustration I have already experienced.

At the moment it makes you angry, it saddens you.

But I like to have the peace of mind of knowing that what depends on me is fulfilled.

And what does not depend, you have to accept it.

It happened to him in Beijing.

Yes, a place was missing and, although I had a brand, they decided to do without me.

At first it seemed very bad.

But I thought I should find an alternative life for myself and I started studying Medicine.

I don't think I would have taken the step to go to triathlon either.

The person who made the decision did me no favors, but I knew how to make sense of failure.

That does not take away the bad moment.

But it helps.

What will happen if he loses in Tokyo?

I'll have a hard time.

When it happened to me in Rio, I focused on looking for another opportunity.

They say that success is more complicated than failure.

What will you do if you win?

I will consider the following objective.

Never had a need to accept yourself because you were built to like yourself?

It's possible.

In my house they always treated me as an equal and demanded of me as an equal.

He talks all the time for help.

Was he aware of how lucky he was?

No. I had an integrated education.

I attended a public school where two days a week a teacher from ONCE came to help me.

She was very useful, but I didn't like going with her at all.

I wanted to stay with my colleagues, not do something different.

Also, I missed physical education class, the one I liked the most.

Is physical preparation as important as mental preparation?

Without a doubt: the good mental form also works.

There is a gym for the mind.

I work with a sports psychologist named María Martínez.

In general, we turn to psychologists only when we have problems.

And instead we do sports so that the body is well.

It is the difference between prevention and cure.

Susana Rodríguez Gacio, doctor and paralympic triathlon athlete, photographed at the High Performance Center of Granada (July 2021) Papo Waisman

She didn't get to play soccer as a child.

What else has resisted?

More or less I have done what I wanted.

Our parents did not know how to swim and they insisted that we learn so that we could be calm during the holidays.

They signed us up for a workshop and my sister and I ended up competing.

My parents have not played sports in their life.

Why?

In his environment there was no such possibility.

My maternal grandparents worked in the fields and my father's had a grocery store.

They spent their lives exhausting themselves with work without thinking about what their body might need.

Maybe that's why our parents, who were the first generation to study, tried everything on us.

They also pointed us to music.

My sister finished piano and I went to the conservatory, although I was not good at it.

What was he playing?

He rapes her.

The truth is that he had a double life.

In the morning, at school, he wanted to do everything well and was very responsible.

In the conservatory I started with great enthusiasm, but I ended up not fulfilling my homework because I didn't like it… I wanted to quit, but my mother made me finish and pass until fourth.

Were they very demanding?

Once I got a seven in chemistry and my mother said, "Oh, what happened?"

But come on, I didn't want seven myself.

In most schools there is not much space for those who, because they are fat, skinny, nerd, black, black or gay, are not like the others.

Did they leave her alone?

The

bullying

has always existed.

In my case, despite having an adverse circumstance, I was the best.

And that is not easy to manage.

Without bad intention, there was a teacher who used to give me an example: "He doesn't see and he does it better than the others."

I had no evil, but that did not work in my favor.

There was a tough time, in fifth grade, in which I asked to change to the ONCE school.

I thought that we would all be the same there and there would be no stories.

It was a few months.

Then everything went for the better.

How was it arranged?

How do your patients at the Hospital de Santiago react when they realize that their doctor is practically blind?

Most of them, very good.

And how do you diagnose?

In rehabilitation, as in many other specialties, 90% of the diagnosis is clinical.

That is, it depends on the conclusion you are able to reach.

I can't see the lightning tests, the comrades are in charge.

Have you felt that you aroused more admiration or pity?

I don't think there's any reason to feel sorry for me.

Do you feel that selling ONCE tickets is conforming?

Do not!

It's a job — and it's not easy — that improves the quality of life for many people, as opposed to settling.

Susana Rodríguez Gacio, doctor and paralympic triathlon athlete, photographed at the High Performance Center of Granada (July 2021) Papo Waisman

He has always wanted to measure himself against others.

How do you relate to someone who has, like you, ocular-cutaneous albinism?

I am to normalize everything as much as possible and not to lock myself in anything.

I never bet on a single card.

I believe that patient associations that come together in weakness to gain strength can give families information that hospitals do not provide because they are there for other things that we know how to do better.

I collaborate with Alba, an association that created a girl's family in Valencia.

Not that it does much, but I know it is important to name the disease.

Have you met people with your illness and without their drive?

Of course, and also to people with more drive, like Marta Arce, who is a judoka and has won Olympic medals.

She is a psychotherapist, she has three children… Sometimes when I catch a plane, I am mistaken for her.

Would you like to have children?

I have doubts.

Not at the moment, but it is not clear to me.

Do you have a partner?

I have had, but not now.

How did you meet her?

It was from the world of sports.

Sport forces a very peculiar life of training and travel.

It is not easy to live with other worlds.

How do you feel about people who cannot muster a desire to improve?

We cannot all be the same or serve the same purpose.

Dancing is fatal to me.

It's funny that I don't enjoy dancing.

Is it difficult for you to lose control?

Well… I don't like losing it.

Can you afford to be fragile?

Yes. In the end, people who know me well know that I am.

What do you do when you are discouraged?

What I think is that it has happened to me more times and that then there was a way to improve.

What a mind control!

Maybe one day that won't work for me.

But for now, faced with anger or despair, I remember when I got out of other troubles.

Do you feel free?

Pretty.

Do you have more physical or mental strength?

Physical.

What is success?

Set goals, achieve them and be able to enjoy them.

The moment of adrenaline is not taken away by anyone.

What has cost you the most in life?

What would you say, for example?

Get over the pain of a loss.

I would say the same.

It has felt very good trying.

When you try rest, you still go crazy ...

I do it in the town where my grandparents were from, Sopena.

It is a green, quiet place.

Although they are not there, it is as if I connect with them.

I like it, but I wouldn't be able to live a quiet life.

It would seem to me to waste my time.

What is success?

Accept, celebrate?

Reinvent yourself.

What will the next Susana Rodríguez be?

It is totally unpredictable.

When the 28th of August passes, if you call me on the 29th, I'll have something on my mind.