Antônio Tenório’s career is like a movie, but his life doesn’t fit a full-length film. It would be necessary about four. Dominant in the B1 category – completely blind athletes – till 100kg, he has won the most different challenges to be a four times Paralympic champion. And he is not willing to leave the scene.

In Beijing 2008, he decided to record his path to the gold in video.

“Each one of the four medals in the Paralympic Games have its flavour, have its history, its memories. But the last one, won in Beijing, had a different flavour because of my documentary. We have recorded along my trajectory. In the final combat, I thought I could not only close the competition, but also the movie in big style. It was a great victory for the Brazilian parasport and for me”, recalls Tenório, main character of “B1”, directed by Felipe Braga and Eduardo Hunter Moura, launched in 2009 and awarded in festivals from all over the globe.

When he was seven, Antônio Tenório lost the vision of the left eye after playing slingshot with castor bean. By the age of 19, an infection produced retinal detachment on the right eye, which ended up leaving him blind. His contact with Judo, nevertheless, has happened many years before that. He has learned the glows when he was still able to see.

“I was invited to participate in parasport competitions at the age of 21 and 22, in 1991/1992, but I also competed in regular championships, for athletes without any disability. In most cases, I was the only one with visual disability”, he tells. “In 1995, I went to the World Championship and, the next year, I won my first gold in Atlanta [in the 86kg category]. I didn’t know how it would be from that point on, I didn’t know if I would continue training, if I would be a teacher… I started training again in 1998, and in 2000 I was twice-champion in Paralympic competitions [in the 90kg category]. From that point on, media and sponsors started to look closer”, he recalls.

Heading to Rio 2016

In 2004, Tenório competed with a meniscus tear injury on the left knee and in a new category, till 100kg. Even so, he won the tri championship in Athens. That time, he didn’t believe he would get to the podium four years after that, at the age of 37. He didn’t only do it, but he also won all fights by ippon, the perfect Judo blow.

“I like to live one day after the other, to think about plans bit by bit. This was how things happened till Beijing and it will continue like that. In London 2012, we already have our place confirmed. I want to be in Rio in 2016. I train for that and, if everything goes right, I will be there”, says the judoka, who is participating in jiu-jitsu championships for athletes without disability as a new challenge in his career.

When asked about what he thinks he will be doing when his trajectory on tatamis ends, he says that he has the intention of “being on the other side of the table”: “I will continue working with sport, developing the parasport. That is the thing I believe in, with what I can help. If they let me, I will be honoured to work with sport management.”

Accessibility as legacy

After more than two decades traveling across the world as an athlete, Tenório notices a good change on how people deal with individuals with disability. For the Paralympic Games in Brazil, he believes that some achievements will serve as legacy of the greatest sporting event in the planet.

“Accessibility issues, such as audio signals to visual-impairment people, adapted buses, wheelchair users accessibility on the streets, among other, are of extreme importance. In countries where there are war injured people, this aspect tend to receive another treatment. In Brazil, there is no war. The Games allow us and the young people to dream of many things. With better results on sport, and also better conditions. Our law is good for that. We believe and bet on this way”, he says.

Recorded in the history of Paralympic sports, Tenório gets moved when remembering the Brazilian anthem on the top of the podium. He hopes to hear it in his home country, sang by his compatriots. “Giant by its nature” is the strophe that plays a movie in his head. Every four years, the star of Judo and of his own life doesn’t get used to repeat the happy ending.