- Juan Luis Moraes has had a brilliant sports career and has participated in more than 15 regional and national championships.
- On February 24, his great sporting milestone will take place at the 2019 World Rowing Indoor Championship in the USA.
- Ribera Salud has opted for its project as a symbol of perseverance and a spirit of improvement.
The handicapped rower Juan Luis Moraes has presented today at the University Hospital of Torrevieja its great sporting challenge: Compete for the first time in the world indoor adapted rowing championships in the United States. Competition in which it will have the support of Ribera Salud, its official sponsor and with which it shares its commitment to sport and its desire to excel.
Juan Luis Moraes is 28 years old and has a high degree of disability, the result of childhood cerebral palsy. A situation that has not prevented him from practicing rowing professionally since he was a child and reaping success both at the regional and national level. His sports career will have as a great milestone his participation on February 24 in the World Rowing Indoor Championship 2019, in California, United States.
An adventure that Ribera Salud has wanted to join since, in addition to being its official medical service, it has become the main sponsor of this project, with a firm commitment to sport and the desire to excel. Juan Luis Moraes, a patient at the Torrevieja University Hospital, is synonymous with effort, perseverance and a spirit of improvement, values that also represent the company's philosophy.
More about Juan Luis
Juan Luis discovered his passion for rowing at the age of eight. Remember that “I was at school when the Real Club Náutico de Torrevieja visited the students to give a talk about rowing. That's when I learned what this sport was, I loved it, I signed up and started training in water and on land”.
The beginnings in this sport were not easy, practicing the mobile bench rowing alone “with a ship that moved a lot” he says, forcing him to double his efforts.
From the age of 10 to 22, he continued rowing with a team, reaping successes and medals in regional championships, but his teammates stopped practicing this sport and, as he himself says, “I stayed alone training”.
Faced with this situation, he resumed rowing on a mobile bench but in the adapted rowing category, according to his physical condition. Thanks to this decision and his perseverance, at the age of 25 he competed for the first time in the Spanish championship as a senior. In his personal record he has more than 15 metals, which testify to the work that he has been doing for many years in adapted rowing.
Juan Luis is aware that it has not been easy and not precisely because of his disability, but because of the obstacles he has encountered along the way. In 2016, he obtained the authorization of the federation to compete at the national level in adapted rowing, serious training and an adapted boat loaned by a
Paralympic rower so she could compete. As he often says, “if you can dream it, you can achieve it”.
The story of Juan Luis Moraes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IALTKbTpBjc&feature=youtu.be
More information: www.torrevieja-salud.com/rsc/remo-adaptado
Follow the challenge on social media: #IbelieveinJuanLuis @torreviejasalud @riberasalud
