Wikinews interviews Spanish Paralympic track and

field athlete David Casinos

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Friday, July 19, 2013

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Laura Hale interviews David Casinos for Wikinews

David Casinos at the airport in Madrid before departing for France

Image: Laura Hale.

With the IPC Athletics World Championships scheduled to start Friday

(today), Wikinews interviewed Spanish athlete David Casinos at Madrid–Barajas
Airport Monday before he departed for Lyon, France.

Wikinews Hello I'm interviewing David Casinos, Spain's most famous track and field
athlete in Paralympic sport, for Wikinews. So you're competing at the IPC World
Championships are going to win a whole lot of medals? Which medals are you going to win?

David Casinos :Well, I'd like above all to perform well, because it would mean I'd be
closer to the medals. I'm humble in that sense. ((es))

WN As somebody who's been competing a long time in track and field, how has
stuff changed form when you first started out to now?

David Casinos: The biggest change I've seen has been with regards to media,
communication, but above all the Plan ADO Paralympic. The professionalization of
Plan ADO, becoming professional sportspeople. Spanish Paralympic sports is now
more known to the media and in the world. ((es))

WN Have there been more opportunities for sponsorship as your Paralympics

profile has grown?

David Casinos: Yes!

WN Would you like to promote a few of them?
David Casinos: I've got several sponsors, one of them is Toro Loco, an energy drink,
there's also Diputación de Valencia, Fundación Trinidad Alfonso, from Juan Roig,
Mercadona, Moncada which is my townhall, Valencia Terra i Mar... I may be
forgetting one of them now. I've got several. ((es))

WN In London one of the Australians said that it was time for athletics
in the Paralympics to be able to become more professional and get shoe
sponsorship. Do you know if any of the Spanish ones are covering shoe logos
if they don't have sponsorship? [Editor's note: here the translator asked a
different question in Spanish, about whether shoe brands were helping
athletes.] ((es))

David Casinos: No. This does not happen. ((es))

WN Is this going to be an issue? I mean is Spain at the level where

it can become an issue?

David Casinos: I for example have a big sponsor, Italian Macron Sports, which also
sponsors the Italian and Spanish Leagues of soccer. So I don't have that problem. I
feel very supported. ((es))

WN Okay. So, you're a visual-impaired athlete, and do you run

with a guide?

David Casinos: I don't run with one, but I do need a guide to do series, jump, to do
everything I need to do in training to throw very far. ((es))

WN How helpful are guides in terms of how much they

potentially impact outcomes, do you think?

David Casinos: For me the guide is a basic component of my daily work. When
competing, they simply help you to get in and out of the field, and you do the rest, but
in a daily basis what I call the backstage, the guide helps you with the weights, jumps,
positions. There's more work even, behind the competition scenes. ((es))

WN Spain has a long history of blind sports, compared

to other countries. Do you have an explanation as to why
there are so many blind athletes?

David Casinos: Well, above all we have ONCE, the organization greatly responsible
for disabled people having available a series of options, including sports. And in that
respect ONCE has been very pioneering. Absolutely pioneering. And that's good.
((es))
What's happening now is that other countries are discovering their Paralympians.
 WN Is there anything you think an international
audience should know about you or the Paralympic
movement in Spain?

David Casinos: I'm just another sportsperson who fights for his dream, which is
sports, to surpass myself, day after day, after having a great challenge which was
losing my sight. And that is the message I like to transmit to people through
coaching. ((es))

WN Okay. ¡Muchas gracias!