Please help disabled man to go to Paralympics

ONE MAN’S JOURNEY ON CONQUERING HIS MOUNT OLYMPUS

How would Ancient Greek gods see me? As someone who is crippled, or as someone who can conquer the tallest of mountains and cross the widest of rivers?

Those are the questions that rise when thinking about the most ambitious goal that I want to achieve – but before I tell you that goal, let me share my story.

More than one year ago, on January 2022, I finally started my recovery. Recovery from what? “When your legs don’t work like they used to before” - unfortunately, I did not have that much strength to sing this song, because on a beautiful 2021 autumn I had a motorcycle accident which left me with a broken spine (partial quadriplegic) – and put me in a coma for a month and started internal bleeding and other serious complications during that time. Now I can call myself a Terminator, because now my spine is fixed with metal screws and hooks.

While Terminator was a machine, a robot – I am still a human, who was running and lifting weights prior to my accident, but such accidents really affect your own emotions, and the dark dog of depression crept over me. To fight that angry black dog called depression, I started looking for a suitable sport for me, and boy oh boy – I found academic rowing!

Now, this is not easy to do, but I am paying for my own coach, rowing camp, any upcoming competitions and currently I am practicing rowing in a double scull – which means that there is always someone out there who has to sacrifice their time, energy, and money to practice together with me, so I try to borrow a single scull. What’s the problem with borrowing a single scull? Well, it is on another side of the country, which is at least 3-hour drive and more than 300 kilometers away, so that becomes even harder to practice for my goal.

And that goal is my Mount Olympus – the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles! Water is a magical thing for me – when I am rowing, I do not feel any different from other healthy people, in fact, it makes me mentally stronger that I have ever been, and it shows that life does not end at such difficulties – it opens new doors.

So, I want to represent Lithuania in the Paralympic Games and I want to make rowing by handicapped people more popular and to encourage other people like me to try it out. I can reach this goal – all I need is just a boat. A single seater boat (the before mentioned single scull).

I have found a used boat for 7 000 Euros and I invite you to contribute to my mission and goal and make history!