Italy’s Simone Barlaam looking to have fun at Paris Paralympics after Tokyo blues
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Italian swimmer Simone Barlaam swims during a morning training in Milan ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
MILAN – Italy’s Simone Barlaam did not enjoy the Covid-19-delayed Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, but he is looking to have fun at the 2024 Games in Paris and improve on an already impressive record.
The 24-year-old is one of the world’s top para swimmers and competes in the 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly plus the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle categories.
In 2023, he was named the Best Male Summer Sports athlete by the International Paralympic Committee and he is set to be one of the stars of the Paris Paralympics from Aug 28 to Sept 8.
“My goal for Paris is to enjoy the Paralympics, obviously doing my best and trying to improve myself more and more,” the Italian told Reuters.
He also said that, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, his head “wasn’t in a beautiful place” at the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo, where he won a gold, two silvers and a bronze.
“I didn’t like what I was doing. I got there almost disgusted with swimming. I wasn’t happy with myself,” Barlaam added.
“I didn’t enjoy it much, so now I want to enjoy Paris. I want to enjoy every moment.”
Born with a hip deformity, with his right leg shorter than his left, the Milan native got into swimming from an early age as it was the only sport he could practise safely with his condition.
He had also always felt comfortable in the water.
“Besides, I’ve always liked the feeling of being in the water because it gives me that feeling of lightness, of being agile, of being graceful, which I don’t often get on dry land because I also feel a bit awkward, clumsy,” he said.
A professional swimmer since 2017, he dominated the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships in Manchester, winning all of his events with five golds and setting a world record for the men’s 50m freestyle S9 category, going under the 24-second barrier.
At the end of the day, Barlaam is happy just to be an inspiration for others.
“It’s the most significant, the most important side of the coin, which you realise slowly as you grow up... that in the end you have an influence on people you don’t even know,” he said.
The Italian added that he often gets messages on social media from children with disabilities or from their relatives.
“Thanks to my exploits, to the races they see on TV, they become more confident in their own means, they no longer hide their disability and indeed they begin to do sport,” he said.
“That’s the social change that the Paralympic movement aspires to bring about, even indirectly.”
REUTERS
