“When they invited me to compete and told me I’d win prizes, I didn’t care—I went because I loved swimming.” Alberto Abarza’s words explain better than any medal what swimming means to him. In the pool, the body—which faces limitations outside of it—regains its freedom, and the world seems to shrink to a lane, a stopwatch, and a finish line.
Abarza was introduced to the water as a child, at Teletón, and turned that experience into a career that took him to the world's elite.
But his story is also a race against time. Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, a progressive disease that affects his muscles and nerves, continues to advance as he keeps competing. Every race is an opportunity to reach the finish line before new obstacles get in the way.
Perhaps that is why, for Abarza, swimming is not just about competing. It is about returning to a place where time is measured in seconds, strokes, and goals—but also in freedom. And every time he dives in, Chile rediscovers that there are limits that only exist until someone decides to cross them.
Source: La Tercera – Alberto Abarza, “El Gran Pez”
