Susana Rodríguez Champion of the World of paraduatlón honored by the University of Santiago

After covering 5 kilometers on foot, 20 by bicycle and another 2,5 on foot, Susana Rodríguez Gacio, a second-year medical student with severe visual impairment, was proclaimed world paraduathlon champion in Gijón. She competed with 1.150 athletes from 35 countries. She has been competing since 1998 and is her greatest success. She now belongs to the Cidade de Lugo Fluvial Triathlon Club, and to the USC Swimming Club. Yesterday, one month after that success, she was received at the Faculty by the dean, Juan Gestal; Vice Deans Víctor Arce and José Carreira; and the secretary, Luis Lima.

Sport also caused him troubles, such as being left out of the 2008 Beijing Games "for bureaucratic reasons," he explained. Now his favorite sport is triathlon, and he especially excels at swimming. She is convinced that this will be a "spectacular Paralympic discipline."

This young woman overcomes the challenges of sport, and aspires to dedicate herself to the practice of medicine in endocrinology and nutrition, family medicine or rheumatology, three specialties that interest her much more than surgery or the laboratory, she indicated.

Santiago, the «second house»

To achieve this, he looks at other people with the same problem, such as one in Andalusia who completed the Mir in endocrinology, and another in Barcelona who is in the fifth year. Medicine "is a career that has it all: research, care and being close to people," he explained to senior officials at the Faculty.

Since she was little, she showed an inclination for Pharmacy, Medicine or Nursing because, she maintained, "without health, the rest of the things do not exist."

Medicine is "difficult" for him because "it requires a lot of work time." But "the University is a very important part of my life." He already values ​​Santiago as his "second home". Accustomed to sporting victories, she described yesterday as "proud" because Juan Gestal and his team dedicated "part of their time to having received me."

Gestal presented her with a book, a history of Galician spas from 1700 to 1936, and emphasized the interest of these establishments for health and development: Galicia and Northern Portugal have an enormous wealth of mineral-medicinal waters that will be tourist attraction. He highlighted Susana's "firmness, obstinacy and perseverance", as well as her "tenacity" that make her an "example for her colleagues," he said.

Source: lavozdegalicia.es