"When we started we didn't know if we would find accessible toilets"

BarcelonaOn Tuesday afternoon, a group of athletes were chatting at the facilities of the Real Club de Polo in Barcelona. Jordi Ros and Víctor Garcia were looking at some photos of themselves from 1992, when they were the first Catalans to participate in the Paralympic Games in wheelchair tennis. It was the year this discipline debuted on the Paralympic calendar. And it was precisely in Barcelona. "In our time, the miracle was being able to play. People thought we were crazy when they saw us in wheelchairs with rackets. And suddenly we found ourselves playing in front of a packed court cheering us on," Garcia recalled. The Madrid native Dani Caverzaschi, one of the best players at the moment, is chatting with them. And looking at the photos, he notices an important detail: before, they competed with the same chairs that people used in their private lives, not like now. Now there are specialized chairs for competing with a small wheel just behind to provide balance and prevent players from falling backward when they gain momentum to hit the ball. "How did you serve?" Caverzaschi asked. "Well, as best we could," Ros replied humorously. "We served differently. You couldn't gain momentum by bringing your arm back, you had to serve with less power, but when we started competing, we always ended up falling on our backs at some point," they remembered.

This week, the Real Club de Polo facilities are hosting the ninth edition of the TRAM Barcelona Open, one of the best tournaments in Europe, which is now in its ninth edition. "After the Grand Slams, the most important tournaments, a tournament like this would come next. Great work is being done to nurture this discipline," says Jordi Tamayo, president of the Catalan Tennis Federation. The Galician Martín de la Puente, the best player in Spain at the moment, agrees with him. "We are moved by how we are treated. The best courts, a good hotel, impeccable treatment. It's up to us to respond by offering a good show," he says. Just before the start of the tournament, players from the past and present met for a round table. Lola Ochoa, one of the pioneers in the women's category, listened to the current players with some envy. "I would have liked to be able to compete now, with the commitment that has been made. In my beginnings, everything was more complicated," she admitted.

Wheelchair adapted tennis celebrates its first half-century of life this year. Half a century in which it has changed completely. When the pioneers began to compete, one of the problems they encountered was not finding facilities with ramps or adapted toilets. Everything had to be done. "We were playing in prehistoric times, with those heavy chairs. And they told us we would go to the Paralympic Games in our own country. It was an adrenaline rush. We started as four crazy people and look what this sport has become now," says Víctor Garcia, who partnered with Ros in 1992. "When they called me to confirm I would be an Olympian, I was alone at home and didn't know how to celebrate it. I started shouting like crazy," he adds. "The beginnings were not easy. I used to look in the yellow pages for information about tennis clubs or tournaments. At the first tournaments, I didn't know if I would find adapted toilets," explains Lola Ochoa.

The creators were two Americans. One of them was the young skier from California Brad Parks, who, while doing acrobatics on the snow, fell badly and became paraplegic. During his rehabilitation process, he read an article by Jeff Minnenbraker in which he spoke about the possibility of adapting tennis for people with mobility problems. He contacted him, and they played the first match in 1976. The only difference, apart from the equipment, is that the ball can bounce twice, although "it is increasingly common to let it bounce only once, because if you wait for it to bounce twice, you might not reach it. The sport has improved so much that it is increasingly physical," points out Caverzaschi. The discipline was adapted until it reached the Paralympic calendar in 1992 in Barcelona.

From those early days, we have moved to a present with tournaments like the TRAM, a well-organized tournament with the support of RC Polo, the Real Club de Tennis de Barcelona, the Cruyff Foundation, and with Martin de la Puente as ambassador. The Galician is one of the current stars, a spectacular player who has overcome many problems. When he was eight years old, he was diagnosed with a rare congenital disease that deformed his bones, called Proteus syndrome. And his left foot was amputated after more than fifteen surgeries. A few years later, he was already winning medals competing. "First, sport was a refuge, then it became a lifestyle," says a player who seems shy when he speaks, but not when he plays, at a very high level. "I mean it. You see more fun and technical matches in a wheelchair than without one, many times. You see the game now and the evolution is incredible. And you can find sponsors, a key fact, as it was very difficult before," reasons Quico Tur, from Barcelona, who has participated in five Paralympic Games.

Wheelchair tennis has evolved so much that it is now exploring new paths, such as a doubles modality in which a player without mobility problems partners with one who uses a wheelchair. "In France, playing wheelchair tennis has been explored with players who walk normally. That is to say, people without any disability who sit in the chair," says Caverzaschi. Quico Tur does not see this idea clearly. "How can you compare someone who has suffered an accident or illness with someone who has no disability? Even if they are in a chair, they are still someone with musculature and mobility throughout their body different from mine," says this resident of the Sant Andreu neighborhood who played football when he was young, until he had a traffic accident at 21 years old. When the event ends, players from the past and present continue debating about where their sport is heading. A sport that has become their life. And the young people look with admiration at the veterans, as they paved the way. And the veterans look with envy at the young people, as they have had the chance to live through a good era to compete in well-organized tournaments like the TRAM.