Sergio Ibanez he only has 21% vision, a handicap that has not prevented him from breaking one more barrier in his sports race by winning the last Spanish Cup of absolute judo beating athletes without any type of disability.
Sergio Ibanez (Zaragoza, 1999) is the only one in the family with visual impairment, in his case 79%, due to a birth problem in the optic nerve that also makes him photosensitive to light.
At the age of eight, thanks to ONCE’s recruitment of young sports talents, he got on a tatami for the first time after trying swimming and got hooked. “I didn’t like swimming and I switched to judo, to an adapted group.” Later, over time, he went to the Judo Club Zaragoza and began to train with other able-bodied athletes.
“In judo I found a sport that fulfilled me. Little by little I climbed the steps, went to competitions, gave performance, and my level increased over the years. I was in a club in Zaragoza and I never tried to stand out because of my disability, but because of my sports level,” Sergio told EFE from the High Performance Center in Madrid, where he has been training for two years.
“I live in the Blume Residence. Internal disabled judokas are only Borja Pahissa and I. Álvaro and Dani Gavilán are external. At CAR I train from Monday to Saturday, some days in double session, and I rest on Sundays. I combine training with studies from INEF at the Polytechnic”, points out the Aragonese judoka, who trains under the orders of Javier Delgado.
“He has been working with me for four years, we know each other well and he is giving me a lot,” he says.
TOKYO PARALYMPIC GAMES
In 2021, in Tokyo, Sergio Ibáñez fulfilled a dream, that of participating in the Paralympic Games, and his debut could not have been better. He climbed to the podium and won the silver medal in the -66 kilos category by losing in a close final match against the Uzbek Uchkun Kuranbaev, who won the so-called golden point on the iconic tatami of the Nippon Budokan, a reference center for the japanese martial arts
“Going to the Games was a dream I had as a child and, on top of that, winning a medal is something unforgettable,” says Sergio, who acknowledges that “the support he has had from his family also influences his performance.”
This season, due to the fact that his usual category, the 66 kilos, was suppressed for the Paris 2024 cycle, Sergio has decided to go up to 73 to be able to compete in the French city.
“As of January I have started in the new category. I am still working on it with nutrition, weight exercises and some other things that I have to face. I have to gain a lot of kilos but little by little, over time,” he stresses.
His progression has been endorsed in the last absolute Spanish Cup played in Marín (Pontevedra), as he was the best judoka of the 34 participants in -73 kilos against able-bodied athletes.
In the first rounds he beat the Asturian Alejandro González and the Portuguese Otarl Kvantizdze and Joao Crisostomo. In the semifinals he defeated the Basque Aitor Goikoetxea and in the final he got rid of the Norwegian Yoan Tutunarov.
This feat has not been surprising because previously, in other absolute Spanish Championships, he won silver in 2018 and bronze in 2020.
In the calendar that this season has marked in red is the European Championship in Italy in September and the World Cup in Baku (Azerbaijan) in November. Two very important competitions to score points for the international ranking that will later decide the places for the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024.
“There are barely two years left for the Games and being in Paris is something very difficult. The ranking can be decided by small details,” confesses the judoka from the Móstoles Judo Association.
The work is bearing fruit for Sergio Ibáñez. Now when he closes his eyes, his dreams move to Paris glimpsing a bright future.
