Patience always has its reward. Daniel Caverzaschi (Madrid, July 11, 1993) has shown it on the Ariake Tennis Park court, with several postponements, either due to the suffocating heat or the rain in Tokyo. Without going any further, this Wednesday his quarterfinal match against the Dutchman Tom Egberink was delayed for hours, with whom he ended up losing 6-4 and 6-3. Despite the defeat, it was an appointment with history, since no Spanish chair tennis player had reached that point in the individual draw of the Games. He did it after beating the Belgian Joachim Gerard (the three in the world) and before leaving the British Dermot Bailey and the South African Evans Maripa on the road.
But his patience has not only been evident in Tokyo. Also on the path that has brought you here. Already in Rio he became the first to reach the round of 16. At 28 years old, fourteenth in the international ranking, he is quite a veteran. These are his third Games and he has spent more than half his life dedicated to tennis, which he started at the age of 12. “I feel young, but I am already a veteran. The London Games were incredible. It was very hard for me to be there. I qualified at the last minute. I had to be among the 55 best in the world and I got it by being 53 or 54. Until the last week it was not known. I enjoyed like a child. My family and friends came. I was 18 years old and I realized the magnitude of an event like that, ”he explained to Ace days before heading to Japanese lands.
Then Rio would come and his diploma, a progression that continues. “I am another tennis player. In addition to having improved many aspects of my game, I am more used to managing the pressure, the tense moments of important games and I enjoy it more”, analyzes the man from Madrid for whom the mind is as important (or more) than the physical. He does meditation and has a treasure in his notebook. His annotations range from the technical aspects of the game to the roller coaster of emotions that he can experience. "In tennis you are alone in the face of problems and meditation makes me calm down and focus. The notebook thing helps me. I have everything there. I let off steam. From insulting me ('I shit on everything Dani, do what you have to do' ) to more tactical stuff ('Throw two backwards then open right'). It's funny. Sometimes I read what I've written in the past and laugh. I keep them at my mom's house. Someday I'll take them out to the light”, he jokes.
Because if something defines him, it is his great sense of humor. The key to living and transmitting his experience with disability, with which he has lived since childhood, after being born without a femur or knee in his right leg and with damage to the left due to a congenital malformation. “He is improving the perception and normalization of disability, but we are still far from other countries. I lived in England, I was studying there —he graduated with an honors degree in Economics from the University of Warwick as a tribute to his father, who died months before— and I participated in the Games. Everything was transformed. Suddenly Paralympic athletes became stars. I went to a store to buy clothes and not everyone left or came to offer me help. It was just another client, they said good morning to you and... 'Hey, tell me anything'. In Spain we are evolving, but that stereotype of the poor thing continues. In my case, disability was normalized from a young age. My parents treated me like one more and my friends told me: 'Hey, lame' and I answered: 'Hey, black'. There was always a lot of humor. That's the best way," he argues.
That's why #ValeLaPierna was born. His hashtag. His leitmotif. His life motto. A life in which solidarity plays an important role. It has just presented a line of t-shirts, designed by the Silbon brand, the profits of which will go towards the purchase of basic adapted material by the Spanish Paralympic Committee. There are five different models, with phrases like 'Error 404. Leg not found', 'I'm COJOnudo', 'Imperfectly Perfect' or 'Disabled. Not the only project he has in hand. "P&G's help will help the Bepro Foundation create more wheelchair tennis schools throughout Spain. They have eight this year and a directory will also be promoted. There are many centers, schools, academies or foundations where you can practice adapted sports but people don't know it. I would like to universalize access to sport," he says.
For Dani, sport is one of the great pillars of his life. He tried them all in his childhood in the United States: swimming, basketball, skiing... Even foot tennis with a prosthesis. "I liked it, but it didn't hook me. They all beat me up, I couldn't keep up with them. I played soccer and it was different because I played as a goalkeeper and I could shoot and save, but in tennis... Imagine! I went to four or five classes nothing else and I continued with other sports. Then when I tried chair tennis, which was in equal conditions there, I loved it". A matter of patience...
