Oh yes, he's uber hot. Valkyria introduced me to him a few years ago on a web page that said "Made in Brazil". Bless him, but he's a little too 'jock super crip' for my personal taste. I wouldn't throw him out of my bed though (as if he'd ever even consider my bed - ha!)
This will be my second translation of a Brazilian TV show.
I hope you all enjoy it!
"Very good morning for all! Welcome to "Sports Spectacular "! Fernando Fernandes is here with us because he has a life history that will surely make your Sunday very special. Yours, ours, of all who are watching the show! It's a story of those who have desire to see and telling several times!
BBB repórter: Do you think your life will be divided into "before and after" of Big Brother?
FF: There are people who are shaken by the defeat and carry this defeat for the rest of their lives and there are people who grow up in defeat and seek to become better than they were at the time of that defeat.
Many people already know Fernando Fernandes’ history and maybe you also know, the greatest loss of his life certainly wasn't his elimination from Big Brother Brazil in 2002 (Background voice: "Tonight, Fernando is eliminated with 77% of the votes! "They’re hating me out there, he said").
The biggest trap in which the former BBB fell and changed his life completely, happened three years ago.
July / August 2009 Reporter: The model suffered a serious car accident in São Paulo ... / His car hit this tree, then broke down the traffic signal, and only stopped when it hit that other tree.
FF: Why am I here? Why is it that I drove the car that day? Why I left home?
Fernando suffered a bone fracture in the T-12. Bone fragments, beyond the shock of the violent impact, injured his spinal cord.
Doctor: Patients suffering an injury last thoracic vertebra, like Fernando, lose movements away down toward the legs.
FF: From that moment, I became aware of what was happening. I realized it would be a very slow process, should I work very hard to rehabilitate and recover. That's when I asked myself: And now, what will I do with my life?
Reporter: Things to do in life? Now, what else, besides living?
FF: “You will eat clay!” - Sport is my religion, sport is my life, sport is my motivation, sport is my priority, you know? Through sports, I conquered everything I wanted in my life!
Sport as an ally in the recovery:
FF: When I sat in the kayak and everything started to flow, I realized how much I was free, how much I was capable!
Although become a para, FF experienced various sports to know the Paracanoe.
FF: Through Paracanoe, I feel free, I feel capable, I feel mysel with the mission to show people that the spinal cord injury and the wheelchair are no limits to anyone.
Reporter: With only eight months of training, Fernando became world champion Paracanoe in his category in 2010 and in the following year, the second title came!
FF: I think the impossible is the barrier that the Human Being imposes himself / herself.
Where is impossible? I don't know. Where is my limit? Where is your limit? I don't know but I will behind it to find out!
Reporter: From the next month, you'll see here in "Sports Spectacular" a man in search of self-knowledge
In the icy mountains of the ski resort of Aspen, the relearning.
FF: The mono-ski is a whole new thing for me, is a device where you sit down and you need to have balance. In addition, you are on the ice. That is, not enough to simply balance and from there go on.
In Brazil, two proofs wich test his both phisycal and psicologycal limits: In the State of Goiás, a 50 km adventure race.
Together the para and the blind man.
Blind man: "When the proof is done as a team, disability starts eliminated already!"
FF: "This requires teamwork. Sometimes, I'll be the Adauto's (the blindman's name) eyes, other times he will be my legs."
A team that makes the union, the main fuel to overcome rises.
Then, in northeastern Brazil, between the borders of the states of Alagoas, Bahia and Sergipe, stunning images of the São Francisco River, canyons and 55 km from Paracanoe Marathon. The body on the edge!
And finally, at Disney Parks, fantasy, joy... 42 Km of magic and overcome!
FF: When you pass through the finish line, comes the feeling of open my arms wide and cry and thank God for all I went through, for all I'm going to pass through and finally, for all the pain for which I will still pass!
Reporter: An image show: In the snow, in the air, at sea, in rivers, in the mud!
We will follow this winner's saga, an ordinary man (FF yells: Challenge without limits!) in the quest for his own limits!
CHALLENGE WITHOUT LIMITS appears on the screen.
Bald man in the studio: "I'm impressed!"
Woman in studio: "I was tired just watching him in action!”
Man: When I first met him, he was a little boy, a child, we were neighbors, so I'll start by asking you: Does exist impossible for you?
FF: Look, Tande (the bald man's nickname), "Impossible" for me, just happened to be a word inside my head and does exist a statement I wrote on the wall of my bedroom saying: "Why didn't know it was impossible, he was there and did it!"
I think impossible does exist more in people's minds, because we need of the paradigms that defines what is possible or not until someone comes along that breaks the barriers and do it! My answer is: the impossible is in the mind of each one. I
still don't know the impossible!
Woman: Your limits are yourself which establishes, aren’t you?
We noticed while you were in the snow, in the air (up to skydiving you did ...) but your main sport is the Paracanoe, so that you are twice world champion of Paracanoe. Why did you choose the path of Paracanoe?
FF: I don't know, I think this was a gift from God to me, because when I was doing my rehabilitation, I sat in a kayak and that simple act gave me all the answers I've been looking at that moment of difficulty and pain, suddenly, the kayak gave me back my freedom, since that you're in a wheelchair you lose freedom for lack of accessibility. And showed me what I needed it was back to feeling a sense of capacity, as I was able to do something. I needed at the same time be able to balance myself in the kayak and have strength enough to drive it. And when I saw me as an equal to people without spinal cord injury, the answer for which I sought was on time! The answer to: "How am I able?" "Am I free now, even in a wheelchair?" And suddenly the kayak came and said: Paddle toward your dreams!
Woman: It was a great initial impulse for you, right?
Bald Man: Fernando, what is overcome for you?
FF: Overcoming is to overcome your own fears, is not it? Because we feel fear every day, We left home every day afraid that something might happen. I'm afraid to go to the bakery, because I do not know if I can get to the bakery. Overcome this fear is a victory! If before the injury, I had to "kill a lion once a day" * now, I need to kill ten lions once a day! But now, I'm armed and ready!
Overcoming is this: You should be able to deal with your fears in a serene and positive way.
Bald man: It was very good of you to come here!"
Footnote: * "Kill a lion once a day" is a Brazilian popular saying that means: "To achieve your daily goals, great personal effort is needed."
Update: The correct date of FF's car accident is 07/04/2009 (Born in July 4th sounds familiar to you all?) and nowadays he is already three times Paracanoe champion!
