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Dóra Pásztory
Paralympics Europe- and Worldchampion swimmer
So as I was born, I have three fingers on my right hand and two on the left hand
and on this left hand the two fingers were coalesced.
I can show you here, you can see.
They implanted skin here from my tummy, so that they could be divided when I was 5.
And then after that surgery the doctors said
that despite I will use it more - since I can grab with it
I still wouldn't use it as much as my right hand
and due to that it's possible that less muscles get built up,
there could be scoliosis, the parents should do something.
Either 1,5 hour physiotherapy per day, which
consists of this, and I was totally unable to do that
like "Okay, but when can I go play?"
Or the swimming, because it moves every muscle in a natural way.
And then...
Well it sounded very nice,
but I couldn't be taught to swim, because
I began screaming when the water touched my face.
So... We had a (Lake) Balaton holiday house, I spent my summers close to the water,
but I didn't tolerate it.
On top of that we lived at Palotabozsok, it's near Mohács, a 1000 people village.
Where there was no swimming pool, just a little river, that we jumped through.
So back then we felt it very far that I would learn to swim.
But then a... the Foundation for Limb-missing Children
- they are a foundation that exist even now -
they organized camps every summer and in these camps I was taught to swim by
a person named István Málnai.
Who I got to like so much that they came to me from Pest, which is 300 km.
They came to me to teach me swimming, because to him...
To him I did everything he asked me to do.
At that time I was... 6-7 years old.
He tempted me to go underwater by saying there were treasures under the water.
These treasures were pieces of tiles.
For a child this... is the heaven itself, especially when there are such excitements
and I got underwater because of that. And that way I got my fear down.
And then... '95 was the turning point, when we moved to Pécs.
I got in to an association, to the Apáczai Pedagogic Center's swimming place.
And then I got to Dr. Petra Monotori, who was my coach for 10 years in the end.
So it started from a medical reason, and then this competition sport became my habit.
So... The competitive spirit has always been in me,
and when I began swimming, my second question was
"Okay, when can I compete? How can I compete?"
That how can it be- and then I had to wait only one year
and after one year I was allowed to go on a race.
So that's how this whole thing started with rehabilitation goal
to strenghten the muscles and it grew itself into something else.
It was a very lucky meeting.
At which place was that, or where?
In the ANK, it's the Apáczai Pedagogical Center.
Yes, and the association was in the ANK's swimming club...
It's funny that it was founded in '84 when I was born.
Eleven years, and we found each other in '95.
I won paralympics for the first time when I was 16.
16 years old, you know that age, the success came and
it's so hard to handle it and thinking back to it
I don't know how could it have been
but I was egotist of myself, that I'm the middle of the world
and I won it and I'm loved and celebrated and why should I train like I did before.
This "defiance-period" and plus my paralympics winning got into
one period and that was a really hard period in the relationship with my coach.
Because... it was somewhere a dad-daughter relationship
when I got to him at 11, and I've spent more time with him than with my family.
So he followed my personality-evolving till the end.
I'm a very lazy person, I've always been. And
I can say that I can thank my coach for that...
that practically he "kicked" me until I reached the top of the podium.
So, I think it's very important and I (?)
so it's very important to learn that you shall always have
on one hand ideals, on the other hand such helpers, who...
Now, the teacher, later it can be the...
the family, the parents - so there shall be always people who you trust in
and who help you through that dead point
and those who motivate you. For me it was my coach who...
Always knew what to say to me to make me do the task when I thought I couldn't do it.
(?) the first, when (?)
A lot of people ask that from me and I say I'd the happiest person
if I could give even a little bit of that feeling, because
I could make a lot of people happy that way.
How much is your life different from the others'?
Like, do you feel it as a different one or not at all?
- Like anyone else's? - Mhm. Do you have difficulties?
Well, now I'm not swimming since 7 years.
I have such difficulties like anyone else. So...
I don't think that...
That from my insufficiency there would be any problem.
I live alone, I do the housework alone, I wash, cook, clean up,
I drive car. I'm cycling since 3 days.
So really no problem. My insuffiency is lucky, because I can solve everything with it.