Ariel Enrique Schrenck Martinez

Started: He learnt how to swim at six months old in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He began competing in non-Para swimming at age four in Girona, Spain, and took up Para swimming in 2016. (fosbury.cat, 02 Jul 2019; Athlete, 15 Aug 2018; marca.com, 23 Jan 2018) Reason: He comes from a family with a swimming tradition. His parents enrolled him into a swimming club, and doctors also encouraged him to try the sport. "Although I have been swimming all my life, I started in Para swimming in 2016. Until then, I just swam with able-bodied athletes." (Athlete, 15 Aug 2018; marca.com, 23 Jan 2018) Awards: In 2017 and 2018 he was named Best Para Athlete at the Sports Gala in Mataro, Spain. (totmataro.cat, 29 Mar 2019; totmataro.cat, 07 Apr 2018) Additional Info: BENEFITS OF SPORT He believes sport can be beneficial for the health and wellbeing of people with impairments. "You should not sympathise with a person with an impairment because you are giving them an excuse to give less than they can. You give them protection that is not real and then that person will not know how to face the world. In fact, if someone told me that they cannot play sports because they have an impairment, I would answer that they are perhaps looking for an excuse. I even found a way to do archery. I wasn't the best shooter in the world but, you know, I fired my arrows." (miradasconalma.org, 06 Apr 2019) STUDIES He has studied for a degree in data engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. (Instagram profile, 13 Jul 2020)