Porto Alegre, Brazil Vanderson Chaves has faced many challenges in more than a decade as a Paralympic fencer, but none as fearsome as the massive floods in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state.
The waters took away his equipment, dozens of medals, his passport – and may have even thwarted his chances of reaching the Paris Olympic Games in September.
The ground floor apartment in Chaves, ideal for wheelchair users, is located in an elevated area of the capital Porto Alegre. Still, this did not spare him from becoming one of the 230,000 people displaced by the floods.
Days later, his house remains submerged, his few remaining belongings fit in a car and it is taking a toll on his mental health ahead of two important competitions next week to secure his place in the Paralympics.
“There’s no way this won’t affect me. To compete and train well you need to be psychologically well. And I’m not,” Chaves told the Associated Press at Grêmio Náutico União, a club that has become a shelter for around 300 people since the floods began. “I come from a poor area of Porto Alegre. Everything for me is harder to achieve. I’m black, I’m disabled. And now this.”
The fencer competed in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021. He has been among the best in the Americas in foil and saber for many years. He needs to add a few more points in two competitions in São Paulo to guarantee the trip to Paris. And to get this ticket he will have to rely on donated equipment and an unexpectedly tiring trip because Porto Alegre airport is also flooded.
Chaves will travel from Porto Alegre to Florianópolis on Tuesday in a minivan for about six hours and 460 kilometers (280 miles). Afterwards, he will make a brief flight to São Paulo, so he can compete from next Thursday until the weekend. His main rivals, who come from Argentina and the USA, will be training and fine-tuning until then, seeking to overtake the Brazilian in the world rankings and reach Paris.
“I went to my mother-in-law’s house, it’s my first day back at the club. It’s like a war here, I don’t even know if I would have the courage to train”, said Chaves, who has needed a wheelchair since a gun accident at the age of 12. Here, this has always been my way out.”
There is little chance he will return to his apartment anytime soon, with heavy rain still forecast. That’s why authorities are racing to rescue survivors of the massive floods that killed at least 100 people and left another 130 missing.
Storms were expected in the state this Thursday, with hail and strong winds.
Chaves’ coach, Eduardo Nunes, says the fencer will face problems beyond mental stress and the unexpectedly long trip in his attempt to qualify for the Paralympics.
“He will have new gloves. For a football player, it’s like having new boots. He may get blisters from this, the gloves will not soften. His clothes also need to be softened, and he won’t have time to do this and get used to moving around in them. These little details will affect you. But he can overcome all this,” said Nunes. “The hardest thing will still be your mental health. To focus on what he needs to focus on.
Fencers from Brazil and the United States offered clothing and equipment to Chaves. If he secures a place in Paris, the Brazilian government will automatically grant him better resources to compete.
Chaves believes that his challenges can turn into positives if he qualifies. He still hopes to find some of his medals.
“I know that many children, many fencers in wheelchairs, are inspired by me,” said Chaves in an emotional tone at the training center, where donations for homeless people were piling up in the next room. I can use it to encourage them and I can use it to encourage myself to go after it too.
“I like waking up seeing the medals, thinking that the following week there will be more medals there,” he said. “This is something that gives me extra motivation. And that’s because I know I still have everything underwater.”
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AP Olympics
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