With four months to go, Hipólito training hard to be star of Rio 2016
Brazilian teenager set to be face of Paralympic Games, along with compatriot Daniel Dias
Verônica Hipólito was just 17 when she burst onto the world scene (Photo: Getty Images/Julian Finney)
Four months from today the first Paralympic Games in South America will begin, and who is better to ask what the milestone means than Verônica Hipólito, the 19-year-old Brazilian sprinter who is set to be one of the faces of Rio 2016.
“What do I still need to do over the next four months?” she asked. “Train, train and train some more in order to improve my times in May, June and July, because I want to arrive in September at my very best, in search of gold at the Games.”
The ever-smiling Hipólito burst onto the international scene at the 2013 world championships in Lyon, where she set a new world record on her way to 200m gold in the T38 class. At last year’s Parapan-American Games she confirmed her status as one to watch for Rio by winning three golds (in the 100m, 200m and 400m) and one silver (in the long jump).
Hipólito had a brain tumour removed in 2008 but three years later she suffered a stroke which affected the movement on the right side of her body. She missed last year’s world championships because she had to have an operation to remove 90 per cent of her large intestine.
However, complaining is not part of her vocabulary, and she joked that she only ever felt like crying when she pushed herself to her limits in training. “Sometimes I think I can’t take anymore, but I always manage a bit more,” she said. “I tell myself that I have to finish training. We have to always give our best.”
As she said in this Instagram post on Thursday (5 May): “The best don’t do what they want, they do what they need.”
Another Brazilian who is expected to delight the home crowd is 10-time Paralympic champion Daniel Dias, who won the international Laureus award for the third time last month. The swimming star put another marker down on Thursday, when he broke his own world record in the 50m backstroke S5 class, touching home in 34.95 seconds at the European Open in Funchal, Portugal.
Final test
The last of the 45 test events that Rio 2016 is staging to prepare for the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the Paralympic athletics competition between 18 and 21 May. More than 300 athletes from over 20 countries are set to compete at the Olympic Stadium.
