Flavio Tehran Padilla is more than a survivor of conflict. At age 35, he is a multiple national champion of swimming and discus throwing, a test in which he added another title awarding a new national brand.
In the Metropolitan Stadium Roberto Meléndez of Barranquilla won the international open athletics in its category with a launch of 45.26 meters. For this athlete from Antioquia, the result brings him closer to his dream of becoming a world champion: “I am happy to once again achieve a national record and to place myself within the top three of the Paralympic World Ranking. It has been hard work and a lot of sacrifice. “
After integrating the Antioquia team, now competes with Valle del Cauca. Every day he gets up very early to go to the sports unit in Cali, where he trains between 4 and 5 hours in the gym in the mornings. In the afternoon, he dedicates himself again and again to the discus throw to perfect technique and power.
There, on the track the burly athlete throws through the air the heavy disk, which flies without his pitcher taking his eyes off, the same one that is set on earning a place in the Paralympic Colombia team, one of his goals as a high athlete performance.
His life is an example of reparation and resilience of the victims of conflict. The collection of almost 50 medals, titles and brands was obtained with his leg amputated and the other with limited movement, after being a victim of the explosive traps left by armed conflict in the areas he hit.
Flavio was 17 years old when one of those devices mutilated his leg and for a time destroyed his dreams. Now, almost 18 years after falling badly wounded, he trains his body and mind to overcome the disability and those “fears and ghosts”, as he calls the aftermath of the most tragic day in his life.
It was December 30, 2000. He was walking through a rural area in Antioquia’s Bajo Cauca when he found an object that he picked up to look at it and it fell to the ground. An instant later an explosion at his feet left him stunned and for a moment his vision blurred.
“That ate my legs, I mutilated one completely and the other was saved by the doctors, but I was left without mobility or sensitivity, it only serves as a support”. For him it has not been easy to survive with that “atrocious vision of feeling mutilated and destroyed”.
It thus became one of the 11,621 victims that have caused antipersonnel mines and unexploded ordnance in Colombia since 1990, according to figures from the Government’s Directorate for Action against Antipersonnel Mines.
Example of repair and resilience
After months of physical rehabilitation due to his disability in Medellin, Flavio sought a motivation to improve himself and find a new meaning in his life. He found it in swimming and athletics and gave himself body and soul.
But before consolidating himself as a high-performance Paralympic athlete, he had to overcome those “ghosts and fears”. Then he went to the Unit for Comprehensive Care and Reparation for Victims.
First, the psychologist of the psychosocial team Juan David González became the coach of Flavio’s mind for his emotional recovery. “He is a friend who helped me overcome my fear and recover my confidence that was damaged when that explosion changed my life and forced me to change my life projects in an instant.”
His rehabilitation reached another high point in September 2016, when he received financial compensation as part of his comprehensive reparation, which he decided to save for a home.
Now he wants to conquer more podiums in his renewed life: “I want to transform this whole process that has been painful into something beautiful. Being a world and Olympic champion is a real dream that gave meaning to my life after losing my leg … it would be the reward for my sacrifice. “
