Welcome to another inspiring story of “Meet The Real Heroes” on Special Neighborhood, an exclusive Social Network for the specially-abled. For our first time readers, this series is dedicated to individuals, who have conquered problems resulting from their physical or mental disabilities to achieve their dreams and ambitions. The world of Specially Abled needs more role models and this series is dedicated to bringing those real-life heroes to you.
As per WHO, more than one billion people in the world live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning. Consequently, to achieve the goals set under UNITED NATIONs SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS of building an inclusive and equitable world, it’s imperative to empower people living with disabilities
One billion people, about 15% of the world's population, experience some form of disability whether it be physical or mental making them an integral part of the society and motivation for several others in their community. Teresa Perales Fernandez is one among those very few of them who despite being diagnosed with neuropathy at the age of 19 in the year 1995 after being born as a normal kid on 29 December 1975 never let her disability weaken her determination for the goals she wanted to achieve for herself.
She is S5, SB4, SM5 classified Spanish swimmer, politician and motivational speaker who practised Karate before she lost her legs in a span of 3 months due to neuropathy and post that event she was broken and helpless but gradually she worked on herself and made her first international appearance in 1998 at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she won a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle beginning a new with swimming. After her debut internationally she has won a total of 26 Paralympic medals at 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympics, with six of those medals earned at the 2012 London Games making her the most decorated Spanish Paralympian in history.
Along with her swimming career, she earned a Diploma in Physiotherapy post-2000 Paralympics. Perales has also been a politician, in an Aragonese Party (PAR) from 2003 to 2007. Following her departure from politics, she co-wrote an autobiography with her husband - Marianao Menor.
She is best known for her performance in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, securing three Paralympic golds and breaking two world records in the process. She won the gold medal in the 50m freestyle in a world-record time of 35.88, and in the 100m freestyle in the world record time of 1:16.65. One more silver medal followed in the 50m backstroke, and a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke.
Post Beijing Paralympics, Perales, who was voted onto the IPC Athletes Council, took a maternity time off to take care of her newborn child. She then returned to the international stage in July 2011 at the IPC Swimming European Championships in Berlin, winning a total of eight medals, one gold in the 100m freestyle, four silver, and three bronze medals. In the London 2012 Paralympics, she won the 100m freestyle event and retained her title for the third consecutive time.
For Rio 2016, Perales switched tactics and decided to focus on the 50m backstroke - an event in which she had never won a gold medal in, despite many podium appearances. She took this as a challenge. Having won the world title in 2015 and the European title in early 2016, Perales managed to claim her first Paralympic gold in the event in Rio and proved that she is still strong in the pool.
Teresa is now a teacher with the heart of a politician and the touch of a physiotherapist who enjoys encouraging the next generation of disabled athletes through motivational speaking and seminars and an example for everyone to look up to.
It’s the thought of the person which makes them disabled or Specially-Abled and she repeatedly has proven that nothing is impossible for those who dare to win .
It’s time to dump the word “DIS-ABILITY”and pronounce it loudly as “SPECIAL ABILITY”. Special Neighborhood (https://www.specialneighborhood.com) is an initiative focussing on building an inclusive world by bringing together all the specially-abled on a single platform, empowering them with an ecosystem, which enables them to Connect, Collaborate, Communicate and Create. Additionally giving them access to jobs, events, news and much more from the world of Special Abilities.
