Italian Para canoeist has a world title but now wants to top off with Paralympic hardware in Tokyo. Esteban Farias was training with the Italian Para canoe team in Cagliari, Sardinia, when the first news came about coronavirus reaching the country.
His focus back then was on the 2020 Paralympic Games after achieving qualification at the 2019 World Championships in Hungary, where he won silver in the KL1 category. But everything changed.
“We had special permission from the National Federation and the Government of Italy to continue training, because we are international athletes,” Farias explained.
As the coronavirus began spreading throughout the country and Tokyo 2020 was postponed, Farias flew to Cremona, the city where he lives in the region of Lombardy, where the COVID-19 hit especially hard.
Two-time world champion Farias used to train in the Po river. But once Italy implemented a national lockdown, he had to find new creative ways to stay fit.
The 35-year-old turned the parking lot at his building into his own gym, doing weight training and aerobic work in that place for weeks.
The postponement of the Paralympics to 2021 was another hard pill to swallow for the Italian, who admitted he was “sad and bitter.”
“I had trained for three years, with a lot of fatigue, a lot of work,” he said. “We know that waiting another year is a lot for an athlete like me at 35 years old. We will see what I can do.”
As Italy relaxed quarantine restrictions, Farias returned to the water, where he feels better.
“A month of not going out in the kayak was bad for me. Being in the river, in that open space, I missed it. I felt like something was missing. Being the water makes me feel good, free in the middle of nature”.
