João Victor de Castro is a 16 year old wheelchair racer from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
João has been a wheelchair user for all his life because of spina bifida myelomeningocele. This is a congenital condition in which there grows a malformation in the spinal column, leading to damage to the spinal cord. Because João’s spinal cord has been completely severed, he has been paralyzed from his waist down for all his life and never had any feeling in his legs.
Luckily, after his treatment in the hospital, João grew up in excellent health. He states that his disability never really bothered him or made him feel different from his classmates. He always was surrounded by his friends and loved all kinds of sports and everything outdoors. He regularly goes out surfing, hiking and adaptive climbing.
When João was 11 years old, the Olympic-and Paralympic Games took place in Rio, his hometown. This was an amazing experience for him. At some point during the Paralympics, an athlete approached and talked to him about the sport of wheelchair racing. This inspired him to try it himself and he instantly liked it!
After that moment, he started training fanatically, and it didn’t take long for him to start racing competively. When he was just 14 years old , he was able to join the CBC(Confederação Brasileira de Ciclismo). By now, he gathered an impressive amount of medals and trophies in the sport and his biggest dream is to once represent his country at the Paralympic Games.
If you’d like, you can visit João’s Instagram right here, or you can check out his Facebook page by clicking the link down below!
João na Handbike, Rio de Janeiro. 581 likes · 2 talking about this. João Victor nasceu com Mielomeningocele e nenhuma limitação fÃsica o imp
