ES+ | No.3 | 2025/2026 There has never been room for the word “limit” in Susana the athlete, and vice versa”, she acknowledges. On Susana Rodríguez’s vocabulary. She was born inthe one hand, the discipline of training helps her not to Vigo (Pontevedra) into a family with no sportinggive up in the face of a complex diagnosis; on the other, tradition, which raised a visually impaired girl who learnedmedicine reminds her that health is fragile and gives her to swim before she learned to compete, but who endedperspective when the pressure of high-level competition up becoming one of Spain’s most decorated athletes and,threatens to trap her in its bubble. at the same time, a doctor in the Galician Health Service.has not been without obstacles: “inHer story, however, “My parents couldn’t swim and wanted my sister and Paralympic sport, you compete with people in similar sit- me to be able to fend for ourselves in the water”, she recalls.uations, but at university or at work, you feel you have to And boy, did they succeed. Her involvement in competi-prove yourself more, simply because you have a disability”. tive sport came about almost by chance, when a supportDespite this, she insists that society today is better than teacher from the Spanish National Organisation for theit was twenty years ago: “there is greater visibility, more Blind (ONCE) told her about a school championship forrole models, more sponsors, but there is still much to be children with visual impairments. “That trip opened a doordone, especially in terms of workplace inclusion for peo- for me”, she explains; “it was the first time I understoodple who need real adaptations”, she says. that there were other children like me, and where I felt IRodríguez advocates for disability as a normal way of could be just like everyone else”. Since then, she has com-life and celebrates the fact that today’s children have more bined swimming, cycling, running and victories alongsiderole models, more adaptations, and can see that adults her other vocation: medicine. When she was growing up,with disabilities can lead completely normal lives. She also her studies always came first, so she soon learned that shetakes a critical view of mass sport, an arena where the val- was not allowed to go training if she had not finished herues that drove her are not always visible. “Overall, it con- school work, in what is a balance between discipline andtributes more good than harm, but sometimes there are passion that has marked her career. aspects that should disappear. Sport should be a place of The pandemic unexpectedly landed her on the cover respect and example”, she argues. ofTime magazine. “It was my duty to be there”, she says,At 37, she continues to rack up the kilometres with the recalling the photo that went viral and multiplied the vis-same determination she had when she learned to swim more ibility of her other great achievement: the gold medal inthan thirty years ago. While sedosn yeknwhthht o weere ot the triathlon at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, whichshe will try to defend her double championship title in Los she retained three years later in Paris 2024. Angeles in 2028, she is proof that no goal is unattainable For her, sport and medicine form an almost insepara-with determination, discipline and sportsmanship, whether ble pairing: “Susana the doctor would not exist withoutin the water, on the road or in her consulting practice. 29