Translator: Cristina Sierra Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
I’m fine, I’m fine, yes, it’s a long time for me to fall.
Do not worry, I was already this white this morning.
(Laughter)
It’s about being an albino so I fall.
I fell with a lot of grace, right?
And is that …
you do not have to lose the glamor or to slump on the floor.
(Laughter)
I actually came to talk about judo.
Of what judo has taught me about life.
I am a high performance athlete, Paralympic because of my visual disability.
I’ve been in three editions of The Games: in Athens, Beijing and London,
and I have managed to get a medal in all of them.
(Applause)
Thank you.
For those who do not know, judo is a contact sport.
It is a Japanese martial art, it means “path of flexibility”.
As it does not have direct hits as such, people who are blind or almost blind like me
we do it with a tiny adaptation that is to start holding on.
For me, judo is a magnificent metaphor for life.
One of its fundamental objectives is to stand up:
rotate, retuércete, move, adapt, but do not fall.
Or rather, that they do not throw you away.
But who has not fallen sometime?
Therefore, the first thing taught in judo is to fall well so as not to hurt yourself.
Because it is very wisely presupposed what is going to happen to you.
Not one or two, but many times, and in all, getting up is mandatory.
Some of these falls are brutal, they leave you with no air,
they take you even below the ground,
they leave you even marks or scars.
But if you’re smart and you know how to give a positive reading,
for the same price you take an apprenticeship,
and what is best of all: overcoming.
I love that philosophy of judo
to prepare for when things do not go well.
It is very useful for everything because, who has not touched bottom at some time?
We all have a history of overcoming and those who do not have it will have it.
I’m going to tell you how I touched bottom.
After four years preparing for the games
and to get to qualify, I arrive in a very good way.
Possibly it is one of the most difficult competitions that I have done the best,
with some hard matches and finally my time comes.
I’m in the final, I can almost touch my gold medal.
They have already said my name and I have to go out and compete.
I’m super-nervous, my hands are sweating, but I’m focused.
I leave and the combat begins. We grab …
I do not know how long the fight lasted, I think it did not reach three seconds.
The pavilion was standing, screaming and I could only think:
“Marta, get up quickly and do not cry here.”
Then, alone, I cried. A lot.
Until my head hurt and everything.
Mogollón
I had given such a slap
They jumped me to the molar covers, really.
I had to go the next day to the dentist of the Paralympic Village
to be beaten
By the way, I did not know we had these services.
(Laughter)
But much stronger was the vital slap I took.
I, who almost got my gold medal,
and almost lost to the teeth.
And above co-star of one of those momentazos
who stay for the story, there … only that I’m the one who loses, you know?
The one that falls to the ground.
And I was sick of losing ends.
I know it may seem a bit ridiculous to complain about a second place, okay?
I got on the podium systematically after losing the last bout
and I did not like the feeling.
I hit bottom that day, I retired, thinking I was unable to win a final,
It did not matter who the other was.
And I stayed in the background for a while.
The bottom must be felt to be able to be propelled in it, to learn.
Of course I came back with many lessons learned:
organization, teamwork … but above all with a different attitude.
Now I enjoy the privilege of being able to compete, of being there.
And when I’m second,
how it happened again this summer in a European Championship
or last week on Saturday, I celebrate it, I enjoy it
and, above all, I learn.
And I was already a specialist in learning lessons
Because of my life circumstances, I have learned a lot in life.
Well, like everyone, right?
I do not know more than the others.
What happens is that, as a consequence of my albinism,
I have had to take many more tumbles to learn the same thing.
That is what we people with disabilities do.
We arrived at the same place by a different path,
innovating and creating what did not exist before.
There are many types of albinism, but this one that I have
It is characterized by this white hair that everyone usually recognizes.
If you lower the light for a moment, please.
I take off my glasses and show you my eyes.
These little red eyes.
Almost everyone knows that we can not stand the light,
that we can not put ourselves in the sun Well, I do not have to dye my gray hair.
But what a lot of people do not know is that this is going to be
of a severe visual disability.
I, for example, see 10%.
This means that I am in the middle of two worlds,
that of those who see and that of those who do not see.
And at the same time I’m not in any.
I have what is called a “visual rest”,
I see lumps, as if I were missing pixels what I do not have is definition.
So the friends who know me know that they are the ones who have to greet me
always, every time and also identify, say who they are.
It is not worth just saying “Hi, Marta”, I already know who I am.
(Applause)
When I go to the nursery to pick up my baby, I wait for it to be her
the one who comes towards me with her arms raised saying “mama”.
I have not yet taken a child that was not mine.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
When I go to school to pick up the two oldest,
If my little man is very moved, which happens often,
I put on him a yellow phosphorite vest
Because that way, when it’s close, I know what child I have to scream.
(Laughter)
I know what you are thinking,
It is a wonderful idea for the agglomerations,
but you can not copy it to me, because you make me dust.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
To use the phone, computers, I use software adapters
and when I have to see things on the street I use a telescope,
I have special magnifying glasses to read,
It is a wonder that there are all the adaptations that there are.
But for people to understand what I see and what I do not see,
I have to give many explanations, my life is giving explanations.
Even so, for more explanations than I give,
I have to go very early in the story:
we are not like cats, we do not see better at night,
we are not as bad as Hollywood paints us …
But there are people who, for more explanations than you give them,
for them things are white or black.
And these medianeces of “blind people who see”.
And people who see that they are blind do not understand them.
How many times have I heard about “you are only seeing what interests you”.
(Laughter)
And it gives me a courage …
But if I think about it, the truth is that part of the reason does exist in this,
because, with what it costs me to look, as above I do not give a damn,
it’s that it’s off and let’s go, you know? I do not know anything anymore.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
What is clear is that everything is confusion, confusion and confusion.
And if this takes you to 35 years ago
when there was less information than now, so imagine.
I had a happy childhood because
I am a person with a cheerful character by nature
and I took the slap when I reached adolescence.
I understood for the first time everything that was supposed to happen to me
that then did not have a name yet.
As I did not want to read, at school I was immediately given the vague sign.
And I fulfilled like a champion with my role.
(Laughter)
They let me approach the blackboard, as the only adaptation,
get up and go see the blackboard.
In general, I remember that my day to day could not come close to seeing many things.
Simply because, when I put my head to see something,
with my hair I pulled everything around what I wanted to see.
Or when I was going to lend a hand, since the phrase already says it,
what is “seen but not touched”.
And little by little, with these little things that were happening to me,
I started doing the idea inside
A feeling of unworthiness;
that there was information to which he had no right,
that was not for me
I find it curious how we are marking the things that happen to us.
Nor could I tell you if I suffered bullying or not.
Because since I had the use of reason and until I was 15 years old,
that I became a group of buddies that I still have,
I was alone wandering around the schoolyard.
And to everyone, in this case I mean adults
It seemed normal to them.
He was a victim of circumstances without wanting, without bad intention.
But the consequences were terrible.
As a consequence of the labels and the lack of information
that resulted in a total lack of accessibility,
I’m not talking about special reading glasses, or telelupa,
I speak of sad sunglasses and a simple cap.
Well I was building a wall of limits, things I could not do
that did not really exist.
And I became an authentic handicapped
because I felt that way
At that time nobody believed that he would get anywhere, far away.
And that’s how my career started up to the top of the podium.
Or good, in my case, the position right next door.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Luckily for me, when judo crossed my life and I had the courage
to not miss the opportunity,
I discovered for the first time
what it is to be in a normalized environment.
I had been in inclusion, but like a goop
and I’ll explain the difference.
For me, inclusion implies that you have been excluded first,
This is important, first I take you out and now I embed you.
And now you do not finish fitting very well.
On the other hand, standardization is accessible, it is adaptable,
implies that we all do an activity, the same activity,
each one covering with their specific needs,
with their specific needs covered and without altering the dynamics of the group.
One last.
Naturally, I was not even the first blunder,
not the first little blonde who passed by there.
But I intuited from the first moment that this was how things had to be.
There were wonderful people in that place starting with my first teacher, Vicente,
who believed in me despite my lack of coordination
and my lack of confidence.
Then I have also had many wonderful experiences
like when I could be with Mariví and participate in the league of clubs
of the Community of Madrid.
Or at my current club in Las Rozas, with Nacho.
Judo little by little empowered me.
He taught me to put on value thanks to feeling part of something bigger than me.
He taught me to strive, not to settle for the results,
to sacrifice myself for passion,
thanks to a new thing that I had not experienced before,
a positive feedback
At last my effort had an impact on the results.
He taught me not to be a victim of my past,
not to be a victim of myself.
In short, to become a mistress, free and responsible for my life;
to make decisions, to choose battles,
and even to be part of this process in other people.
With one of the principles of judo that distinguish it from other sports,
“jita kyoei”, “the mutual benefit to achieve excellence”.
Judo may seem like an individual sport
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We need each other to evolve together.
This within judo has its own principle.
It would be amazing if there were this environment tomorrow
in all classrooms, in all classes and in all jobs.
I know there are many people, children and adults who are in normalization
but there are also many other people who stay as I did,
as a problem that can not be met, as a problem that can not be solved.
The benefits to society are very clear
for people with diversity simply because it is the world
in which we have to be, and not in a parallel reality
that sooner or later will explode us.
Also, to people with diversity, put us where you put us
we bring that different point of view,
that the ability to look for alternative ways,
to see solutions.
And people without disabilities learn to treat everyone naturally.
They learn that life is perfectly imperfect,
that we all have rights and obligations.
We have the right to be parents, we have the right to be children,
We have the right to study, we have the obligation to approve.
And so, little by little, society is changing.
And one day we will have a normalizing society,
full of native standards such as my children.
My children do not question my abilities, they take them for granted.
For them right now I am almost omnipotent.
(Laughter)
Until they reach adolescence and become equally useless
than the rest of the parents, who do not know anything about life.
But until that moment arrives …
(Applause)
The fact is, I would like tomorrow
all this reaches everywhere, but there may be a limit, a limit
and we all have to work so that this does not happen
fighting against true disability,
a disability that does worry me, which is the lack of empathy.
It is a disability without papers, not recognized by the State,
but very limiting.
It not only limits you, it limits those around you
because it does not allow to see neither the good nor the positive of others
and many times neither of oneself either.
Sometimes, it does allow them to park where they should not
and already in step to become architectural barriers.
They are people who do not see roads, do not see alternatives, do not see solutions.
And there is no worse blind than the one who does not want to see.
They are people who have a hard time flowing and need our help
and they need associations and a lot of citizen collaboration.
I am now one more, without more.
I do not see limits, I know they are there waiting for me to arrive
to change them.
I consider trying to fulfill my crazy dreams
How to get to The Tokyo Games with my circumstances:
my 40 years, my injuries, my three children, my job …
But in all these adventures I’m not going alone.
That little girl, Marta, who is twelve years old always comes with me
who is perplexed, who does not trust anything, who does not fully believe it yet.
I take her by the hand and tell her,
“Look at everything we’ve achieved, everything we’ve done:
recognition, medals, that wonderful family, those three children.
Now that’s high sports performance. “
(Laughter)
But you can not believe it.
That’s why I keep her at bay, I just let her out when we’re going to dance
because that I still do as I did when I was twelve years old.
But you are lucky and you will not have to see it.
(Laughter)
Do not wait for life to give you a slap to put
all your potential to work.
If that distrustful one and I have arrived to where we have arrived
leaving from several meters behind the starting line,
What can not you do?
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
I’m fine, I’m fine, yes, it’s a long time for me to fall.
Do not worry, I was already this white this morning.
(Laughter)
It’s about being an albino so I fall.
I fell with a lot of grace, right?
And is that …
you do not have to lose the glamor or to slump on the floor.
(Laughter)
I actually came to talk about judo.
Of what judo has taught me about life.
I am a high performance athlete, Paralympic because of my visual disability.
I’ve been in three editions of The Games: in Athens, Beijing and London,
and I have managed to get a medal in all of them.
(Applause)
Thank you.
For those who do not know, judo is a contact sport.
It is a Japanese martial art, it means “path of flexibility”.
As it does not have direct hits as such, people who are blind or almost blind like me
we do it with a tiny adaptation that is to start holding on.
For me, judo is a magnificent metaphor for life.
One of its fundamental objectives is to stand up:
rotate, retuércete, move, adapt, but do not fall.
Or rather, that they do not throw you away.
But who has not fallen sometime?
Therefore, the first thing taught in judo is to fall well so as not to hurt yourself.
Because it is very wisely presupposed what is going to happen to you.
Not one or two, but many times, and in all, getting up is mandatory.
Some of these falls are brutal, they leave you with no air,
they take you even below the ground,
they leave you even marks or scars.
But if you’re smart and you know how to give a positive reading,
for the same price you take an apprenticeship,
and what is best of all: overcoming.
I love that philosophy of judo
to prepare for when things do not go well.
It is very useful for everything because, who has not touched bottom at some time?
We all have a history of overcoming and those who do not have it will have it.
I’m going to tell you how I touched bottom.
After four years preparing for the games
and to get to qualify, I arrive in a very good way.
Possibly it is one of the most difficult competitions that I have done the best,
with some hard matches and finally my time comes.
I’m in the final, I can almost touch my gold medal.
They have already said my name and I have to go out and compete.
I’m super-nervous, my hands are sweating, but I’m focused.
I leave and the combat begins. We grab …
I do not know how long the fight lasted, I think it did not reach three seconds.
The pavilion was standing, screaming and I could only think:
“Marta, get up quickly and do not cry here.”
Then, alone, I cried. A lot.
Until my head hurt and everything.
Mogollón
I had given such a slap
They jumped me to the molar covers, really.
I had to go the next day to the dentist of the Paralympic Village
to be beaten
By the way, I did not know we had these services.
(Laughter)
But much stronger was the vital slap I took.
I, who almost got my gold medal,
and almost lost to the teeth.
And above co-star of one of those momentazos
who stay for the story, there … only that I’m the one who loses, you know?
The one that falls to the ground.
And I was sick of losing ends.
I know it may seem a bit ridiculous to complain about a second place, okay?
I got on the podium systematically after losing the last bout
and I did not like the feeling.
I hit bottom that day, I retired, thinking I was unable to win a final,
It did not matter who the other was.
And I stayed in the background for a while.
The bottom must be felt to be able to be propelled in it, to learn.
Of course I came back with many lessons learned:
organization, teamwork … but above all with a different attitude.
Now I enjoy the privilege of being able to compete, of being there.
And when I’m second,
how it happened again this summer in a European Championship
or last week on Saturday, I celebrate it, I enjoy it
and, above all, I learn.
And I was already a specialist in learning lessons
Because of my life circumstances, I have learned a lot in life.
Well, like everyone, right?
I do not know more than the others.
What happens is that, as a consequence of my albinism,
I have had to take many more tumbles to learn the same thing.
That is what we people with disabilities do.
We arrived at the same place by a different path,
innovating and creating what did not exist before.
There are many types of albinism, but this one that I have
It is characterized by this white hair that everyone usually recognizes.
If you lower the light for a moment, please.
I take off my glasses and show you my eyes.
These little red eyes.
Almost everyone knows that we can not stand the light,
that we can not put ourselves in the sun Well, I do not have to dye my gray hair.
But what a lot of people do not know is that this is going to be
of a severe visual disability.
I, for example, see 10%.
This means that I am in the middle of two worlds,
that of those who see and that of those who do not see.
And at the same time I’m not in any.
I have what is called a “visual rest”,
I see lumps, as if I were missing pixels what I do not have is definition.
So the friends who know me know that they are the ones who have to greet me
always, every time and also identify, say who they are.
It is not worth just saying “Hi, Marta”, I already know who I am.
(Applause)
When I go to the nursery to pick up my baby, I wait for it to be her
the one who comes towards me with her arms raised saying “mama”.
I have not yet taken a child that was not mine.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
When I go to school to pick up the two oldest,
If my little man is very moved, which happens often,
I put on him a yellow phosphorite vest
Because that way, when it’s close, I know what child I have to scream.
(Laughter)
I know what you are thinking,
It is a wonderful idea for the agglomerations,
but you can not copy it to me, because you make me dust.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
To use the phone, computers, I use software adapters
and when I have to see things on the street I use a telescope,
I have special magnifying glasses to read,
It is a wonder that there are all the adaptations that there are.
But for people to understand what I see and what I do not see,
I have to give many explanations, my life is giving explanations.
Even so, for more explanations than I give,
I have to go very early in the story:
we are not like cats, we do not see better at night,
we are not as bad as Hollywood paints us …
But there are people who, for more explanations than you give them,
for them things are white or black.
And these medianeces of “blind people who see”.
And people who see that they are blind do not understand them.
How many times have I heard about “you are only seeing what interests you”.
(Laughter)
And it gives me a courage …
But if I think about it, the truth is that part of the reason does exist in this,
because, with what it costs me to look, as above I do not give a damn,
it’s that it’s off and let’s go, you know? I do not know anything anymore.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
What is clear is that everything is confusion, confusion and confusion.
And if this takes you to 35 years ago
when there was less information than now, so imagine.
I had a happy childhood because
I am a person with a cheerful character by nature
and I took the slap when I reached adolescence.
I understood for the first time everything that was supposed to happen to me
that then did not have a name yet.
As I did not want to read, at school I was immediately given the vague sign.
And I fulfilled like a champion with my role.
(Laughter)
They let me approach the blackboard, as the only adaptation,
get up and go see the blackboard.
In general, I remember that my day to day could not come close to seeing many things.
Simply because, when I put my head to see something,
with my hair I pulled everything around what I wanted to see.
Or when I was going to lend a hand, since the phrase already says it,
what is “seen but not touched”.
And little by little, with these little things that were happening to me,
I started doing the idea inside
A feeling of unworthiness;
that there was information to which he had no right,
that was not for me
I find it curious how we are marking the things that happen to us.
Nor could I tell you if I suffered bullying or not.
Because since I had the use of reason and until I was 15 years old,
that I became a group of buddies that I still have,
I was alone wandering around the schoolyard.
And to everyone, in this case I mean adults
It seemed normal to them.
He was a victim of circumstances without wanting, without bad intention.
But the consequences were terrible.
As a consequence of the labels and the lack of information
that resulted in a total lack of accessibility,
I’m not talking about special reading glasses, or telelupa,
I speak of sad sunglasses and a simple cap.
Well I was building a wall of limits, things I could not do
that did not really exist.
And I became an authentic handicapped
because I felt that way
At that time nobody believed that he would get anywhere, far away.
And that’s how my career started up to the top of the podium.
Or good, in my case, the position right next door.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Luckily for me, when judo crossed my life and I had the courage
to not miss the opportunity,
I discovered for the first time
what it is to be in a normalized environment.
I had been in inclusion, but like a goop
and I’ll explain the difference.
For me, inclusion implies that you have been excluded first,
This is important, first I take you out and now I embed you.
And now you do not finish fitting very well.
On the other hand, standardization is accessible, it is adaptable,
implies that we all do an activity, the same activity,
each one covering with their specific needs,
with their specific needs covered and without altering the dynamics of the group.
One last.
Naturally, I was not even the first blunder,
not the first little blonde who passed by there.
But I intuited from the first moment that this was how things had to be.
There were wonderful people in that place starting with my first teacher, Vicente,
who believed in me despite my lack of coordination
and my lack of confidence.
Then I have also had many wonderful experiences
like when I could be with Mariví and participate in the league of clubs
of the Community of Madrid.
Or at my current club in Las Rozas, with Nacho.
Judo little by little empowered me.
He taught me to put on value thanks to feeling part of something bigger than me.
He taught me to strive, not to settle for the results,
to sacrifice myself for passion,
thanks to a new thing that I had not experienced before,
a positive feedback
At last my effort had an impact on the results.
He taught me not to be a victim of my past,
not to be a victim of myself.
In short, to become a mistress, free and responsible for my life;
to make decisions, to choose battles,
and even to be part of this process in other people.
With one of the principles of judo that distinguish it from other sports,
“jita kyoei”, “the mutual benefit to achieve excellence”.
Judo may seem like an individual sport
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We need each other to evolve together.
This within judo has its own principle.
It would be amazing if there were this environment tomorrow
in all classrooms, in all classes and in all jobs.
I know there are many people, children and adults who are in normalization
but there are also many other people who stay as I did,
as a problem that can not be met, as a problem that can not be solved.
The benefits to society are very clear
for people with diversity simply because it is the world
in which we have to be, and not in a parallel reality
that sooner or later will explode us.
Also, to people with diversity, put us where you put us
we bring that different point of view,
that the ability to look for alternative ways,
to see solutions.
And people without disabilities learn to treat everyone naturally.
They learn that life is perfectly imperfect,
that we all have rights and obligations.
We have the right to be parents, we have the right to be children,
We have the right to study, we have the obligation to approve.
And so, little by little, society is changing.
And one day we will have a normalizing society,
full of native standards such as my children.
My children do not question my abilities, they take them for granted.
For them right now I am almost omnipotent.
(Laughter)
Until they reach adolescence and become equally useless
than the rest of the parents, who do not know anything about life.
But until that moment arrives …
(Applause)
The fact is, I would like tomorrow
all this reaches everywhere, but there may be a limit, a limit
and we all have to work so that this does not happen
fighting against true disability,
a disability that does worry me, which is the lack of empathy.
It is a disability without papers, not recognized by the State,
but very limiting.
It not only limits you, it limits those around you
because it does not allow to see neither the good nor the positive of others
and many times neither of oneself either.
Sometimes, it does allow them to park where they should not
and already in step to become architectural barriers.
They are people who do not see roads, do not see alternatives, do not see solutions.
And there is no worse blind than the one who does not want to see.
They are people who have a hard time flowing and need our help
and they need associations and a lot of citizen collaboration.
I am now one more, without more.
I do not see limits, I know they are there waiting for me to arrive
to change them.
I consider trying to fulfill my crazy dreams
How to get to The Tokyo Games with my circumstances:
my 40 years, my injuries, my three children, my job …
But in all these adventures I’m not going alone.
That little girl, Marta, who is twelve years old always comes with me
who is perplexed, who does not trust anything, who does not fully believe it yet.
I take her by the hand and tell her,
“Look at everything we’ve achieved, everything we’ve done:
recognition, medals, that wonderful family, those three children.
Now that’s high sports performance. “
(Laughter)
But you can not believe it.
That’s why I keep her at bay, I just let her out when we’re going to dance
because that I still do as I did when I was twelve years old.
But you are lucky and you will not have to see it.
(Laughter)
Do not wait for life to give you a slap to put
all your potential to work.
If that distrustful one and I have arrived to where we have arrived
leaving from several meters behind the starting line,
What can not you do?
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
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