Husband, rope help blind runner reach Paralympc podium
10/9/2008 17:43
At the blocks, Adria Santos stands with her husband Rafael waiting for the
start gun to go. Tying the couple is an 18-inch rope tether.
Both know they
are connected in more ways than a literal tie.
Being blind since birth never
stopped Adria from looking toward a future. With her husband acting as her eyes,
Adria won a bronze medal in the T11 women's 100m dash at the Paralympic Games
yesterday and is already looking to her seventh Paralympics in London.
Hand
in hand, the couple left the track for the press conference. On the way, the
lanky husband with the milk complexion gently stroked the curly brown hair of
the petite, shiny-skinned wife.
"My guide is my husband. We have been married
for five years and trained together for three years," said Adira.
Before the
press conference started, reporters asked Adria to recount their romance. Adria
looked shy, her face flushing. Rafael took her hand and pressed her head against
his broad chest. "Let me tell you," he said.
Rafael, a pole vault athlete,
knew Adria from newspapers that reported her Paralympic experiences. Through a
mutual friend, they met and fell in love. Rafael moved to the city where Adria
lives and they walked down the aisle in 2003. Two years later, Rafael retired
from competitive pole vaulting to become Adria's guide since. Last year, a baby
girl was born.
The 34-year-old Adria has been running for 21 years. She said
she had been living in a dark world before Rafael became a beacon of her
life.
"He is not only my guide in the competition but also in my life. We are
always hand in hand in our lives and it's our fate to be together, both in
competitions and life."
After he seated his wife and led her hand to where
the microphone is, Rafael left the podium and sat in a far corner, watching an
LCD television which carried live feed of the press conference.
When asked
why he stayed out of the spotlight, Rafael said: "The Paralympics is for the
disabled athletes. The glory belongs to my wife, not me. She deserves the
limelight."
Xinhua
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