Imagine skating on a skateboard at a speed of 60 km / h. For those who are not used to the game, it makes your stomach feel cold just to think, right? Now imagine doing this as a person with a physical disability. In this way, only 22-year-old Capibaba Casey Jhonnes points out that there is no limit to move forward. He was born without both legs and his right arm, and yet he is one of the big names for downhill skateboarding in Brazil.
In only four years as a professional, he won the title of state champion of Espírito Santo and in 2018 was considered the best Brazilian Parascatista in Brazil. The following year, he was ranked third in the world of Paraditists in the United States. The States and South champions were Americans.
“When I started skateboarding, months later we started posting adventures on the slope, which attracted the attention of many people around the world. That’s what happened when I was scheduled to perform in a world competition in Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, 2017 Got an invitation. I saw that I could go far away. Then I received several other invitations to events outside Brazil, “says Casey.
Performing at events promoted only to stretch the sport until 2017 – which begins as an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Games -, Casey is the only athlete in the only downhill sport in Brazil. But he wants more, after all, as he grew up in sports, he realized that he could compete on equal terms with people with disabilities.
Casey Jhonnes was born with no legs and one arm because her mother accidentally used thalidomina during pregnancy, a sedative and anti-inflammatory fetal malfunction. But disability never stopped him from doing anything. His father, Ismail, taught him to swim, take a bus, explore the world and never stop believing in himself.
The certainty that disability is not a barrier to dreaming is so great that he strictly adhered to the primer of almost every Brazilian boy and by the age of 17, thought of being a footballer. But everything changed when his father reacted to an attack and was murdered. This was when Casey Jones felt for the first time, unable to do anything.
“My dreams died when I lost my father. I saw that life was not a fairy tale and that what I wanted was a lot of things, like it would not be possible to be a football player. I got to know about this reality. Faced that he protected me, and this. Very sad ”, he agreed.
Skateboard as support
The support that was lacking to continue to believe in myself came through skateboarding. He learned to walk and discovered that his only problem would be to brake – after all, doing it with just one hand is not an easy task. It was necessary to have a little accident and it got hurt when it got trapped.
Father’s place is impossible to fill, but Casey has the support of friends and mother to move forward. In skateboarding, he recreated affection relationships in which people cared about him and wanted to see him succeed. It was his friends who taught him to brake.
“They were always afraid that I would get hurt, that’s true, but they didn’t look at me with disdain. They said that, in one fall, I might have some serious consequences. I never had them. And they were my Continue to help. ” Supporting me, empowers me. These are the people who raise kites with me, who help me go in competition or for demonstrations ”, he says.
Even being an athlete with an international career, money is still a problem to keep competing. Distance is the entry to a championship along with the values for all transportation. The skateboarder states that he spends an average of $ 2,000 dollars in each competition, which is a heavy weight for him. However, investment begins long before the championship. It costs training, equipment and food, and with the gym to keep the body in shape to face the hills at high speeds.
Difficulties and prejudices
There are no financial difficulties in Casey Jonson’s life. Even caricature around the city is a daily challenge. There are also buses adapted for wheelchair users, but they are few and at peak times, they are loaded. Furthermore, when a collective breaks up, it is at the mercy of fate. Call someone for a ride or have to wait for the next one.
“I have already encountered many problems with public transport. On the 5th, the elevator broke when I boarded the bus, I had to get down, I only managed to get home because my cousin went to pick me up. Was, “athlete. “When I used to go to the gym outside the neighborhood, I would leave the house at 3 in the afternoon and only come at 9, because I left the gym at 5 in the evening, and it was peak time. Buses were always full and somebody The place was not there. For me. “
Not to mention pavements in poor condition, lack of lower guides and inadequacy of shops and restaurants for people in wheelchairs. For all these reasons, he does not hesitate when asked whether it is more difficult to win the competition or go to the examination venue: “It is more difficult to participate in the competitions, even if I do all the planning work for four to five months.” At first, I always go with the help of friends, kitty, raffles, everything to pay for the trip.
Casey is constantly faced with another problem which is prejudice. But that doesn’t stop him either. “I faced prejudice, a very bad phase, and I understood that unfortunately society has not yet learned to live in peace”.
Also, there are people who use Casey’s position to make a bad joke. Recently, a person approached him, introduced himself as a reporter and said that he would like to interview him. The boy acknowledged on the spot, after all, that telling his story would serve as an inspiration to people with disabilities and the disclosure of his work could help him with sponsorship for competitions.
“This false reporter identified himself, saying that he was a great communication vehicle, asking me to tell my whole story. After all, he was just a person who was playing. But I needed to maximize my story. The goal is to take them to places. ” I can change stories, people, ideas and ideologies. Show that the impossible is really just an opinion “, he says, citing a song from the band Charlie Brown Jr.
Inspiration and future
Casey’s problems are left behind when he talks about football. Even though he played a fly x flu in a mob maracaena, being a professional player, the game still runs inside him.
“The truth is that I have always been fond of football. We don’t learn to like it, they choose races, colors, nothing, and even if you have the main equipment to practice , Or not.”
The skater still hits a ball, and it is not just to keep in shape. He is part of a social project, a football school for children and teenagers between the ages of five and 15, and he feels that his presence helps teach social inclusion to the younger ones.
Besides being an inspiration, having the right to come and go and participate in competitions, Casey wants simple things, such as a house without stairs. “Today, for example, I live on the third floor. And I would love to live on the ground floor. It will make things easier. I really dream of being my home, living quietly, without worrying about how much energy . ” Come. [conta de luz] Next month “.
