When he is at school, he works with material adapted by ONCE. In his day to day, his appearance is completely normal and does not give any clue to his problem, but the reality is that he does not have central vision, only peripheral, because he suffers from retinal cone dystrophy in his eyes. But in judo, when he grabs the rival… there the differences, although they continue to exist, seem to disappear because he becomes a colossus on the tatami.
He is the young man from León, Hugo Fidalgo, an example of self-improvement who at 12 years of age, already a month away from turning 13, is not only Spanish champion of its category among people with visual disabilitiesbut as a first-year child he has also been proclaimed champion of Castilla y León, earning the place to be in the Spanish Championship to be held in Pamplona in April.
A success for another product of that factory of talents that is the Club Kyoto León, where he is trained by one of the best coaches on the national scene such as Sara Terán, and where he enjoys a discipline to which he got hooked at a very young age and in which he continues to grow without it being clear where his roof will be.
Hugo suffers from cone retinal dystrophy. He is hurt by light and has no frontal vision, only peripheral. «I started when I was just five years old, when I was in 1st grade. The liking thing was instantaneous, but let’s say that loving me wasn’t from the beginning, I got the hang of it and I became more and more passionate until it became my favorite sport», tells a Hugo Fidalgo who notes how «it was very package in the beginning, I was improving little by little and although at the age of eight I left it temporarily, I came back and in the last two is when I notice that I have grown the most».
In fact, although until now he had also played basketball, this year he left it so as not to neglect his studies and focus on judo. And it is that Hugo, who studies 1st year of ESO at Colegio Leonés, has changed his class in Kyoto to train with students older than him and in the weight of more than 66 kilos in which he participates, he is undefeated in the two major competitions held this year, and is now “excited” to debut in an absolute National.
And the thing is that he is not only good at judo, but it has hooked him and he is passionate about it: “I like it for its techniques, for the way it fights, which is about fighting but also about strategy, you have to think a lot about what you have to do do. In the end here the technique always wins the force although both are important, you must think quickly about what to do and what they can try with you, to dodge it and counterattack yourself».
«I love the way of fighting in judo. It is about fighting but also about strategy, technique wins by force» Much to learn, something that is undeniably more difficult when you have a limitation to overcome. Because summarizing his problem on a large scale and how it affects him as an athlete, light does a lot of damage to his eyesight and, being his peripheral vision, he has many blind spots.
That is why Hugo, who, for example, at school has the material adapted by ONCE, with a giant magnifying glass connected to the digital board so that he can enlarge everything on his computer, they explain the techniques not verbally but already in combat, and in the adapted competitions he starts it already seized, although later in the classics he starts like any other.
«It makes it difficult for me when they are going to do a specific technique to me, perhaps it takes me a little longer to react than other people because I see it later. Basically it slows me down a bit, but beyond that I can still compete”, says Hugo, who is clear about his dream, to “participate in the Paralympic Games”, where Spanish judo has always shone and is in fact with 20 medals the fourth sport after swimming, athletics and cycling that has won the most.
«Maybe it takes me a little longer to react because I see it later, but beyond that I compete the same» But in addition, Hugo would also like to be “a judo coach for both normal people and others who have the same disability as me or another, to teach them everything I am going to learn over the years.”
Clear ideas, a goal on the horizon and a promising future. An example that in sport and life you always have to try to face the difficulties that appear. The one who gives a judoka that not only knocks down rivals, but also breaks down limitations.
