Para swimmer builds own pool with plastic sheets
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Sebastian Galleguillo, a Paralympic swimmer who suffers from hearing loss, training in the "swimming pool" his bricklayer father built with him in Florencio Varela, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, during the coronavirus pandemic. They used a 15m by 4m plastic sheet to hold the water.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BUENOS AIRES • Sebastian Galleguillo, an Argentinian Paralympic swimmer, has found an unusual way to train during an almost four-month lockdown in and around the country's capital.
The 18-year-old is part of Argentina's national team comprising deaf swimmers and he is training to participate in the 2021 Deaflympics in Brazil.
The coronavirus pandemic has, however, led to the closure of his local pool, forcing Galleguillo to innovate.
With the help of his father, who is a bricklayer, he has made a makeshift "swimming pool" in his backyard located in one of Buenos Aires' neighbourhoods. They have used plastic sheets, logs, an old tank and two metal drums, and filling it with 400 litres of water.
"We made do with what we had here and we started building," his father Edmundo Hernandez, 47, said.
"The first day was nailing logs on the floor, the second was putting sheets and plastics so that the water does not drain.
"Later, we bought a 15m by 4m plastic (sheet) that forms a bag and that is what holds the water."
As it is winter in Argentina, the pool is being heated via wood burnt in a metal drum.
The conditions are not ideal for Galleguillo, who admitted his time out of the water had been tough, but he is making do amid the Covid-19 crisis.
"I said to my mum, 'I want to train again because I am becoming rigid, I am losing mobility in my body.' It's not the same to train outside as being in the water.
"With swimming, I am one, I am completely me. In there (the pool), I do not depend on my hearing, I am in the water and I only need my body to train."
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400
Litres of water needed to fill Sebastian Galleguillo's makeshift swimming pool.
The Argentinian government imposed a mandatory lockdown on March 20, which was subsequently lifted in most parts of the country, except for Buenos Aires.
Last Friday, it announced plans to ease restrictions in the capital, with the first phase - some shops and services have reopened - lasting until Aug 2 to pacify growing unrest.
The country's Covid-19 cases number over 122,000, with around 2,200 fatalities.
REUTERS