Gonzalo Vilariño: How Argentina's blind soccer team became champions (with English subtitles) | TED

64,974 views ・ 2016-09-09

TED


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00:14
I opened a blind man's head.
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I didn't make him think or reflect -- I cracked his head open, literally.
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We were walking with him holding onto my shoulder,
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I miscalculated how much space there was between us,
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and I knocked him into a gate.
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(Laughter)
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Five stitches in his forehead.
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At that moment, I felt like the worst teacher in the world.
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I really didn't know how to apologize.
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Luckily, El Pulga is one of those people who takes things quite well.
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And to this day, he says that I was the coach
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who left the most important mark on his career.
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(Laughter)
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The truth is, when I started working at the institute for the blind,
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I was surprised by a lot of things.
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A lot of the things they did, I never imagined they could:
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they swam, did exercise, played cards.
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They drank mate, and could pour it
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without burning themselves in the process.
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But when I saw them playing soccer --
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that was amazing.
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They had a dirt field, rusty goalposts and broken nets.
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The blind who attended the institute would play their games there,
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just like I did at a field near my house.
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But they played without being able to see.
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The ball made a sound so they could locate it.
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They had a guide behind the rival team's goal
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to know where to kick the ball.
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And they used eye masks.
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There were guys who could still see a little,
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and they wore eye masks so everyone was equal.
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When I was more at ease with them, I asked for a mask myself.
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I put it on and tried to play.
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I had played soccer all my life.
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This is where it got even more amazing:
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within two seconds, I didn't know where I was standing.
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I had studied physical education because I loved high performance.
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I started working at the institute by chance.
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My other job was with the Argentinian National Rowing Team,
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and I felt that was my thing.
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Here, everything was twice as hard.
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I'll never forget the first day I did the warm-up with the team.
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I lined them up in front of me --
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I used to do that with the rowing team --
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and I said, "OK, everyone bend down," going like this.
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When I looked up, two guys were seated,
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three were lying down and others were squatting.
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(Laughter)
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How could I do here the same things I was doing there?
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It took me a while.
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I started looking for tools to learn from them,
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from the teachers who worked with them.
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I learned I couldn't explain a play on a chalkboard like a coach does,
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but I could use a plastic tray and some bottle caps
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so they could follow me by way of touch.
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I also learned they could run on a track
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if I ran with them, holding a rope.
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So we started looking for volunteers to help us run with them.
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I was enjoying it,
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and finding purpose and meaning in what we were doing.
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It was hard at first, it was uncomfortable,
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but I decided to overcome the discomfort.
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And there came a time
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when it became the most fascinating job I'd ever had.
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I think that's when I wondered:
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Why couldn't we be a high-performance team as well?
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Of course, one thing was missing:
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I needed to find out what they wanted,
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the real protagonists of this story.
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Three hours of training, playing soccer on that field,
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were not going to be enough.
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We would have to train differently.
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We started to train harder, and the results were great;
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they asked for more.
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I came to understand that they, too, wondered
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why they couldn't do high-performance.
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When we felt ready, we knocked at CENARD's door.
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CENARD is the National Center for High-Performance Sports
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here in Argentina.
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It was hard to get them to hear what we had to say.
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But it was considerably more difficult
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to get the other athletes training there to consider us their equals.
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In fact, they would let us use the field
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only when no other teams were using it.
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And we were known as "the blind ones."
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Not everyone knew exactly what we were doing there.
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The 2006 World Championship was a turning point in the team's history.
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It was held in Buenos Aires for the first time.
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It was our chance to show everyone
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what we had been doing all that time.
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We made it to the finals.
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We were growing as a team.
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It was us against Brazil in the finals.
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They were the best team in the tournament.
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They won every game by a landslide.
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Hardly anyone believed we could win that game.
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Hardly anyone -- except for us.
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05:00
During pre-game meetings,
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in the locker room,
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during each warm-up,
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it smelled of victory.
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I swear that smell exists.
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I smelled it several times with the team,
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but I remember it in particular, the day before we played that final.
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The Argentine Football Association had opened their doors to us.
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05:22
We were training at AFA,
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where Verón, Higuain and Messi trained.
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For the first time ever,
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we felt like a true national team.
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At 7:30pm, the day before the game,
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we were in the lounge discussing strategy,
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and a waiter knocks on the door, interrupting our conversation.
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He suggested we go to church.
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He came to invite us to church.
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I tried to get rid of him, saying it wasn't a good time,
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that we better leave it for another day.
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He kept insisting, asking me to please let him take the guys to church,
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because that day, a pastor who performed miracles would be there.
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I was slightly afraid to ask what type of miracles he meant,
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and he replied nonchalantly,
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"Coach, let me take the team to the church,
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and when we return, I guarantee that half of them will be able to see."
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06:16
(Laughter)
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Some of the guys laughed,
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but imagine being a blind person and someone says that to you.
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I didn't know what to say.
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I said nothing; it was an awkward silence.
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I didn't want to make him feel bad,
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because he truly believed this could happen.
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One of the players saved me,
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when he stood up and confidently said,
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"Juan," -- that was the kid's name --
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Gonza already told you it's not the best time to go to church.
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Besides, let me make this clear:
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if we go to that church, and I end up being able to see when we return,
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I will beat you so hard if I can't play tomorrow."
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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Juan left, laughing in resignation,
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and we continued with our pregame talk.
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That night when I went to sleep,
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I began to dream about the next day's game,
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imagining what could happen, how we would play.
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And that's when I noticed that smell of victory
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I mentioned a while ago.
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And it's because at that moment, I thought:
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if the other players had the same desire as Diego going into the game,
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it was impossible for us not to win.
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The next day was going to be wonderful.
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We got up at 9am, the game was at 7pm,
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and we were already eager to play.
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We left AFA, and the bus was full of flags that people had given to us.
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We were talking about the game,
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and we could hear people honking and cheering,
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"Go Murciélagos! Today's the day! The final challenge!"
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The guys asked me, "Do they know us? Do they know we're playing?"
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Some people followed the bus to CENARD.
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We arrived and found an amazing scene.
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In the corridor leading from the locker room to the game field,
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I was walking with Silvio,
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who was holding onto my shoulder, so I could guide him.
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Fortunately, there were no gates along the way.
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(Laughter)
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When we reached the field, he asked me about everything.
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He didn't want to miss a single detail.
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He said, "Tell me what you see, tell me who's playing the drums."
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I tried to explain what was happening with as much detail as possible.
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I told him, "The stands are packed, a lot of people couldn't get in,
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there are blue and white balloons all over the field,
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they're opening a giant Argentine flag that covers the entire grandstand."
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Suddenly, he cuts me off and says,
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"Do you see a flag that says 'San Pedro'?"
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That's the city where he lives.
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I started looking into the stands
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and I spotted a little white flag
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with lettering done in black spray paint, that read:
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"Silvio, your family and all of San Pedro are here."
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I told him that and he replied,
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"That's my mom, tell me where she is, I want to I wave at her."
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I pointed him toward the flag
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and showed him with his arm where they were sitting,
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and he waved his arms in that direction.
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About 20 or 30 people stood up and gave him an ovation.
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When that happened,
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I saw how his face changed, how moved he was.
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It was moving for me, too;
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two seconds later, I had a lump in my throat.
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It was strange -- I felt both the excitement of what was happening,
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and the anger and the anguish that he could not see it.
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A few days later when I told him what I had experienced,
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he tried to reassure me, saying,
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"Gonza, don't feel bad, I could see them.
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Differently, but I swear to you that I saw them all."
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The game started.
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We could not fail; it was the final.
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The audience was quiet, like here,
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because in soccer for the blind,
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the public has to be quiet so the players can hear the ball.
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They're only allowed to cheer when the game is over.
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And when there were eight minutes to go,
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the crowd did all the cheering they hadn't done in the first 32 minutes.
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When pigeon-toed Silvio nailed the ball at an angle,
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they cheered with all their heart,
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in an incredible way.
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Today, if you go to CENARD, you'll see a huge poster on the door,
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with a photo of our team, Los Murciélagos.
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They're a model national team, everyone in CENARD knows who they are,
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and after having won two World Championships
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and two Paralympic medals,
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no one doubts they are high-performance athletes.
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(Applause)
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(Applause ends)
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I was lucky to train this team for 10 years,
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first as a trainer and later as their coach.
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I feel that they've given me much more
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than what I've given them.
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Last year, they asked me to coach another national team, Power Soccer.
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It's a national team of young men who play soccer in wheelchairs.
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They use motorized wheelchairs that they drive with a joystick,
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because they don't have enough strength in their arms
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to use conventional chairs.
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They added a bumper to the chair, a safeguard that protects their feet,
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while allowing them to kick the ball.
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It's the first time that, instead of being the spectators,
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they're now the main characters.
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It's the first time their parents, friends and siblings can see them play.
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For me, it's a new challenge,
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with the same discomfort, insecurity, and fear I had
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when I started working with the blind.
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But I approach it all from a more experienced position.
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That's why from day one, I treat them as athletes on the field,
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and off the field, I try to put myself in their shoes
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and behave without prejudice,
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because treating them naturally feels best to them.
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Both teams play soccer; something once unthinkable for them.
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They had to adapt the rules to do so.
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And both teams broke the same rule --
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the one that said they couldn't play soccer.
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When you see them play, you see competition, not disability.
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The problem starts when the game is over,
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and they leave the field.
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Then they step in to play our game,
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in a society whose rules don't really take them into account
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or care for them.
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I learned from sports
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that disability greatly depends on the rules of the game.
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I believe that if we change some of the rules of our game,
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we can make life a little easier for them.
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We all know there are people with disabilities; we see them daily.
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But by having no direct contact with them,
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we're not aware of the problems they face every day,
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like how hard it is for them to get on a bus,
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find a job,
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take the subway
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or cross the street.
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It's true that there is an increasing social responsibility
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regarding the inclusion of people with disabilities.
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But I think it's still not enough.
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I think change needs to come from every one of us.
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First, by leaving behind our indifference toward the disabled,
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and then by respecting the rules that do take them into account.
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They are few, but they do exist.
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I cracked a blind man's head open -- El Pulga's head.
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I can assure you these two teams opened mine as well.
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They taught me that above all,
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you have to get out there and play every game
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in this beautiful tournament that we call life.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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