I don't see myself capable of doing anything, I see myself capable of trying anything
Jon Santacana
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Jon Santacana (42), a Paralympic skier with nine podium finishes in the showcases, has no qualms about talking about that day:
–I was in the Basque Country with my parents and my brothers. We had gone to eat at a restaurant. I was eight years old. The brothers were waiting outside, playing to read license plates, when my parents came out and realized that I was not clear with the letters and numbers.
-And then?
They thought it was myopia. They took me to an optician, they put me some glasses, but it didn't improve. We visited more opticians, an ophthalmologist said that he wanted to check more things. In the end, I found myself before a professor. I remember that room with a dim light, and the man talking to us about a degenerative eye disease, Stargardt syndrome.
–¿...?
–Its origin is genetic, although my parents had never developed the symptoms. At eight years old, I was not very aware of what was going to happen, but those moments were very hard, especially for my parents.
What came was a progressive deterioration of sight, until it was reduced to a game of imprecise shadows (shadows that dissolve in the dark).
But he didn't settle...
–My parents bought a motorhome and drove us through natural environments. On weekends we went to the mountains or to the beach, we went by canoe, or by bike. I have surfed. And in 2015 I finished the Titan Desert...
-In tandem?
No, no, on your own bike. He was pedaling behind Óscar, a guide who was ahead and telling me: 'big stone, descent with sand...'.
-You don't see anything at all?
–I have no central vision, and only 3% peripheral vision. For me, you are a black mass.
Smile.
About twenty people are looking at it. CaixaBank has quoted us in the Masella ski resort. We are in a room at the Abrigall hostel, at the foot of the slopes.
Before listening to him, we have tried skiing after him.
I repeat: we have tried.
You have read it right. Jon Santacana has been a professional skier.
Little by little, the view faded. I suffered a lot in childhood and adolescence. At those ages you don't want to be different.
How did it get to the snow?
–With my parents, sometimes we went to the snow. They were throwing me on the sled. One day I said that I wanted to try skiing. I learned by following my father (Juan; his mother's name is María José). When we were sliding, I would see other kids, there were clubs, I was amazed to see them. I swallowed ski magazines and catalogues. I was 17 years old when I found out about the Paralympic Winter Games. It was Nagano'98. I told my parents that I wanted to go in that direction. Through ONCE I entered a promotion and in 2000 I was already in the national team in Baqueira.
He had time to get to Salt Lake City 2002. Three podium finishes there. Then his guide stepped aside and Miguel Galindo emerged.
Galindo (42) is big and contemplates the scene. He had been a national level skier (he had trained with Carolina Ruiz), but a knee injury had ruined everything.
He had to take his foot off the accelerator.
Galindo had never thought about being a guide until they made the proposal.
I didn't know anything about that world, and yet we understood each other the first time. Look, it has ended up being my way of life,” says Galindo.
17 years have passed together, skiing at 120 km/h, adding podiums, living on glaciers, hotels and even hospitals.
(There are broken knees, tibias and fibulas, an Achilles tendon, some fingers...).
When they ski, Galindo leads the way and Santacana follows in his wake. He goes tight. Where one passes, the other passes.
–And how do they talk when they ski?
"At first, out loud," says Galindo. Then, by a radio system with two stations. But that was bulky, so we resorted to the communicators used in motorcycling. To talk to him, I use short words. I speak to him simulating a curve. I tell him: 'Cambiooooo', and I lengthen the O as much as the curve lengthens.
"That's faith in the guide," I tell Santacana.
"My faith in him is absolute," he says.
(CaixaBank, sponsor of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, has promoted this event; the entity is committed to the normalization of discipline in society).
