“This moment when you want to stop, this is the moment that you need to increase the pace”

( Photo: Yaron Sharon )

When Veronica Girenko was five years old she traveled with her parents to visit her grandparents in Russia. The trivial family visit became a life-changing experience for her: a car driving behind them collided head-on with the family car, and as a result of the accident little Veronica flew forward and was badly injured in her spine. The result: the little girl had to get used to a new life while confined to a wheelchair.

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Veronica Girenko

( Photo: Yariv Katz )

17 years later, Veronica is already 22 years old and is considered one of Israel’s top Paralympic swimmers. She represented Israel at the Rio Olympics when she was just 18, and recently returned from the Paralympic Games in Tokyo – a great time to talk to her about achieving great things at an early age, hearing about the Olympic experience and finding out how she even got into swimming.

As we did in the project “

Better morning “, A collaboration between Yedioth Ahronoth, Ynet and Thelma, she was not alone, but part of an inspiring couple, who proved once again that a great athlete is a great athlete, whether he has a physical limitation or not, and the challenges are usually similar . Her “partner” for the Wingate Institute meeting was no less than Yaakov Tomarkin (29), one of the greatest Israeli swimmers of all time, the first Israeli swimmer to reach seventh place in the Olympic finals (at the 2012 London Olympics) and the one who also just returned from Tokyo, from the Olympics.

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Veronica and Jacob in the Wingate Institute Pool

( Photo: Yariv Katz

)

When Veronica is asked how her life has been in the accident, her answer is surprising. “In fact, I do not remember my life as a child before the accident. For me, I was always confined to a wheelchair. It’s part of who I am,” she says.

How did you get into swimming from all sports?

“It’s a bit ironic to tell this but I first came to the swimming pool only at the age of 12 – when I was floating on my body. Disabled children who can be taught to swim and called my dad for an offer to come to an introductory training session with him. That’s true to this day. ”

How long did it take you To say goodbye to the floats?

“The truth is that at first I was very scared of the water and it took me a long time to get used to it, but only two years later I started to represent Israel in competitions abroad.”

Over the years, Veronica has joined the national swimming team, competing in the Tokyo Paralympic Games. , But did not reach the final. Currently she is looking forward, towards the Paris Olympics. Whether she wins a medal there or not, the investment is worth the results. “Because of swimming I discovered that I have an extraordinary perseverance,” she says. Do it even when all your muscles are sore, burning, and once you feel you can no longer and must Stop – just then you need to increase the pace. This ability also helps me in life. To know how to go with things to the end and not give up on myself “.

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ורוניקה גירנקו יעקב טומרקין מפגש בוקר טוב יותר בוויניגייט

“Once you feel that you can no longer and must stop, then you need to increase the pace”

Photo: Yariv Katz )

The person who also marked the Paris Olympics as his goal is Tomarkin. If he succeeds, it will be an incredible achievement: the next Olympics will be the fourth in a row in which he participates. He was born in Russia, and at the age of one immigrated to Israel with his family. They settled in Ashdod, where he grew up and was educated. As a child growing up in a beach town it was only natural for him and his family that he would learn to swim, but the routine class in which many children participate at a young age became a life destiny for him. As a child, he trained in the swimming group of the “Maccabi Ashdod” association. Then, at the age of 13, he began training at the Wingate Institute’s Gifted Boarding School, in which he opened a special chapter in Israeli swimming. Tomarkin has already excelled as a boy, always, and his career includes three Olympics, five world championships and eight European championships in the Israeli national team uniform. He was three times European Vice Champion, won two more bronze medals at the European Championships (Debrecen 2012), he was crowned European Youth Champion, was twice Olympic Vice Champion for Youth and twice Maccabiah Champion.

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Jacob Tomarkin

( Photo: Yariv Katz )

“I love the adrenaline of swimming and the pursuit of excellence that comes with being an athlete,” says Tomarkin. “Long time for an improvement of a tenth of a second in the end. It seems like a small thing to a bystander, but it fills me as a swimmer and gives me great satisfaction”.

What is the biggest challenge in your eyes as a professional swimmer?

“Swimming is an industry that requires a lot of work hours. I have two workouts a day – morning and evening in the water. It requires self-discipline, perseverance. I become a coach of myself and know if I was good today or not. Along with the challenge and difficulties swimming has contributed a lot to my life and shaped me as a person and as a father to two daughters, whom I am trying to educate today in the values ​​of sports. Everyone who goes into sports discovers how much their values ​​contribute to it: the pursuit of excellence, the self-confidence it gives children – I do not think it is possible to acquire these things at such a level outside the world of sports. “

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When you’re in the water you’re mostly competing against yourself and against the clock

( Photo: Yariv Katz )

I am glad that I had the privilege of representing Israel at three Olympics and am now preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympics. This is a significant milestone for me Because no Israeli athlete has competed in four Olympics to date And. We are still in the corona era and have learned to live with it, but the Tokyo Olympics was a very different experience, without an audience and with a kind of isolation. I very much hope that in the next Olympics, if it is my last, my family will be able to come and see me. ”

ורוניקה גירנקו יעקב טומרקין מפגש בוקר טוב יותר בוויניגייט

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ורוניקה גירנקו יעקב טומרקין מפגש בוקר טוב יותר בוויניגייט

Girenko and Tomarkin. The next destination is Paris

( Photo: Yariv Katz )

The article was published in Yedioth Ahronoth Note: This article has been indexed to our site. We do not claim ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

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