Spanish para-swimmer who suffers from spasticity pushes through pain at 48 to send a message

SINGAPORE – It is just hours before her race at the OCBC Aquatic Centre and para-swimmer Teresa Perales is in a lot of pain.

The 48-year-old suffers from spasticity or abnormal muscle tightness due to prolonged muscle contraction. It is a symptom associated with nerve issues.

She can easily skip her race, but the Spaniard pushes through the discomfort to clinch a silver medal in the women’s 200m freestyle multi-class event at the Citi Para Swimming World Series Singapore on May 17.

The cycle repeats itself the next day as she wins a gold in the women’s 50m breaststroke multi-class race.

This determination has been key to the 48-year-old’s longevity in a career which has seen her rack up seven gold medals, 10 silvers and 10 bronzes at the Paralympics.

Perales is motivated by more than medals, though. Once an S5, SB4 and SM5 athlete, she now competes in the S2 class for those with more severe disabilities as her condition has deteriorated.

But she still wants to set an example for others. She told The Sunday Times: “I wanted to show that some athletes, we deal with some illnesses that are progressive, which is very hard for us.

“But this happens to swimmers, athletes in this Paralympic movement and I thought it was very good to show how we can live with it and even enjoy our sport.”

An avid athlete growing up, Perales practised karate until she was 19, when she was diagnosed with neuropathy, which caused her to lose mobility in her legs.

That was when her swimming journey began. She joined a disability sport club and competed in her first Spanish championships in 1997, where she bagged a few medals.

The accolades then started pouring in. She made her Paralympic debut at Sydney 2000 and is now the most decorated Spanish Paralympian.

While she has continued to bag medals and awards internationally, she also had to cope with her condition worsening.

She said: “I suffer a lot of spasticity, which is very stressful, very painful. I didn’t know it before Tokyo, I just had neuropathy (which affects the nervous system) and muscular illness.

“I destroy muscles if I train too much and I’m always on a thin line, like I’m balancing and trying not to fall. It’s quite difficult but I’m very proud.”

While pills do help to numb the discomfort, she also turns to a powerful tool.

She said: “With medicine, I control the pain but also more importantly, with my mind, being used to dealing with the pain every day... Also when I jump into the water, I feel more free and feel less pain.

“I feel like I have at least control of my life more than out of the swimming pool because out of the water, I need my wheelchair, help to dress myself and basic things of life.”

Fuelled by her mission, Perales has no intention of ending her swimming career as she prepares for her seventh Paralympic appearance at the Aug 28-Sept 8 Paris Games.

Her coach Dario Carreras said via a translator: “Sometimes we thought it could be the last (Paralympics for her) but no, she never gives it up.”

“I don’t know if she could go on for Los Angeles (2028 Paralympics), but one thing is for sure, she will come here for the 2025 world championships,” he added, referring to the World Para Swimming Championships at the OCBC Aquatic Centre from Oct 3 to 9 next year.

Out of the pool, Perales has been an advocate for various social causes, giving motivational speeches at conferences and companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple.

The message she tries to spread is simple yet powerful: “I try to explain that you shouldn’t judge someone based on what you see on the outside, you should look more deeply and you will find a very nice person.”

Meanwhile, five-gold Paralympic champion Yip Pin Xiu clinched a silver in the women’s 50m backstroke multi-class event on May 18 in 1min 4.89sec, with 853 points, behind Filipina Angel Otom (44.72sec, 914 points) and ahead of Japan’s Maori Yui (55.60sec, 521 points).

Singapore’s Yip, who had also won a silver in this event in 2023, had clocked 1min 5.14sec when she won the gold medal at the European Open Championships in Madeira, Portugal in April.