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One cycle, one dream By Ariel Rubinsky Tags: Israel, Paralympics Like many other top athletes, Nati Gruber has only one thing on his mind these days: a medal in Beijing. However, Gruber, 38, Israel's handcycling champion, has to wait to prove himself until the Paralympics begin there, on September 6. His event is scheduled to be held on September 12 and 13. Ranked fourth in Europe, Gruber has meanwhile been training at a dizzying pace of eight sessions per week, speeding on his bike at 30 kilometers per hour and more, working out at a gym and making sure to eat properly - a lifestyle that up until nine years ago, when he was in a motorcycle accident that disabled him, would have sounded hallucinatory to him. Gruber, 1.78 meters tall, relates that before the accident, he weighed 95 kilos, smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and didn't even want to hear about sport. In the accident he suffered serious pelvic injuries: "I have one leg that works and one that dangles in the air. I get around on crutches or a wheelchair." Advertisement Married and the father of three, he first got on a handcycle about three years ago after he was warned that his excess weight could be harmful. According to him, the "click" he felt with the sport was immediate. Beyond the enjoyment, he very quickly felt he was good at it, that he was fast, and this changed his life. "Many disabled people wallow in their injury, and this is the only thing that concerns them. However, even from within the handicap, it is possible to find your niche, the something that you're good at, and this will change your whole situation," asserts Gruber. "Sport is an excellent way of finding the good in yourself. You don't have to become competitive sportsmen - just the fact of engaging in sport changes a person's outlook and self-perception." Today he weighs 71 kilos, and notes that the sport has directly affected not only his bodily dimensions, but also every area of his life, including his functioning at his job - he works in computers. "At work I spend hours sitting in front of a computer and I still suffer pains and difficulties, but I am dealing with them differently. I have learned from sport that it is possible to cope with everything that has to do with one's handicap." "The aim in rehabilitation is to take the physical and psychological potential that a person still has after he has undergone a trauma, and to maximize it in society, at work and in the family," explains Ofer Eisenberg, who is in charge of the handcycle and tandem bike (for two cyclists, one of whom can be blind) program at Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv, which serves disabled soldiers. Eisenberg explains that the rehabilitation always starts with bodily activity, because the moment a person loses a physical ability, his self-image and self-confidence suffer a mortal blow. "It's a vicious circle: depression that leads to shutting oneself in at home, which exacerbates the depression. The physical activity breaks this cycle." Eisenberg, 57, was wounded several times during military service. He has shrapnel in his foot and hearing problems, but this did not interfere with him running a marathon in the past, and today - participating in bicycle races. He notes that his objective is not to turn disabled people into athletes, but rather to encourage them to persist in sports activities at least twice a week. Eisenberg: "The accepted view is that a disabled person who has a job is rehabilitated, but statistics prove that most people who are rehabilitated also engage in sport. As I see it, rehabilitation has an effect all along the way: The person works, has fun, is active in social and family life. This can start with basic physical activity right in the hospital, with bending a finger." He stresses that the training of people with handicaps is done with great caution to avoid further injury, which can result in grave physical and psychological problems that will lead to an overall rehabilitative failure. 'I was afraid' "The bottom line for me," relates Gabi Brenners, "is that I'm getting married a month from now and I met my future bride handcycling at Hayarkon Park [in Tel Aviv]." Brenners, 44, from Ramat Gan, is a social coordinator at the Etgarim nonprofit association, which promotes rehabilitation of children, youth and adults by means of regular sport, extreme sport and active recreation. He himself fell ill with cancer at the age of 25. Unsuccessful surgery caused him to lose the ability to walk, and made it severely painful for him to sit in anything but a partially reclining position. He was confined to his home for 12 years and was a physical wreck, he says, until six years ago when he decided to go ahead with the amputation of his right leg up to the knee, which enabled him to get around on crutches and leave the house. Today he is a regular participant in handcycle marathon races. Brenners: "Every time I pass a finish line and hear the cheering, I still ask myself whether this is really happening to me - to the person who went through difficult chemotherapy treatments, about whom it used to be said that all was lost. In addition, I had never taken an interest in sports before then, and the Etgarim people really had to force me onto a handcycle. "I started to cycle, at first slowly, and then faster. I started to feel good about myself. All of a sudden, I am racing down paths at Hayarkon Park and people are cheering me on. All of a sudden, I am doing things that even my healthy friends don't do. This adds a lot to my self-confidence and self-acceptance." A year and a half ago Brenners met Natali Jan, 25, who is studying social work and suffers from a slight limp as a result of mild cerebral palsy. She had just begun to ride a handcycle through Etgarim. Their wedding will be held in a few weeks. "The cycling is a shared madness," says Brenners. "We get up at 5 A.M. for training before competitions - we experience this world together." Menashe Bickman, director of rehabilitative education at Etgarim, says that up until the 1990s, rehabilitation by means of sport was done mostly indoors, and focused on basketball, athletics, swimming, table tennis, judo and so on. However, Etgarim, established in 1995 by Yoel Sharon - a filmmaker who was wounded during service in the Israel Defense Forces - spearheaded a change in this approach: "The aim is not to shut oneself into a closed space, but rather to get out, to train and to move around in nature, to meet other people. This strengthens self-confidence, decreases stereotyping and brings people closer," says Bickman, who notes that the association deals only with sports done in the open air, like rowing, kayaking, handcycling, running and tandem biking. It also organizes field trips and many other activities. "Before I started handcycling I was afraid of everything - of walking, of going outside at all," relates Ora Pearlstein, 57, of Tel Aviv, who lost a leg eight years ago when she was hit by a motorcycle. "Sport gives you a feeling of self-worth and faith in your ability: If I can ride for 30 kilometers, I can do many other things, including errands at the bank and shopping. Riding is happiness. I was so seriously injured, but I don't feel handicapped or pitiable. I train, I sculpt, I play with my grandchildren. I'm thriving." "Leaving the house, you expose your limitations and no one likes this, especially not arm- or leg-amputees or people with head injuries," adds Eisenberg, who is a firm believer in outdoor sports. "Going to the park and riding where everyone can see you symbolizes overcoming the psychological problems that originally confined you to being within four walls." He adds that the organization prepares cyclists for participation in competitions and ultimately most of them manage to do a marathon - "both those who cover the 42 kilometers in an hour and a half, and those who will do it in four hours. The result is not the important thing, unless we're talking about a competitive cyclist. There is an audience, television, the whole world sees you. Someone who has participated in a marathon is someone who has accepted himself the way he is, he is no longer embarrassed and this is the huge advantage of sports activity outdoors." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Voice of peace silenced Israeli peace pioneer Abie Nathan dies aged 81. DeadSeaScrolls.com World's oldest Bible fragments to be available online.   1.   I dream when we`ll have Gaylympics and end all the discrimination 06:06  |  Yaakov Sullivan 24/08/08

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