Arnulfo Castorena takes long, confident strokes, pulling himself across the blue width of the pool with his arm. It’s another in an endless series of training days stretching back 17 years. Castorena hopes to break his own world record for the 50 meter breaststroke—56.27 seconds—in this coming Paralympic Games, to be held this August 29 to September 9 in London, after the Summer Olympic Games.
This will make the fourth Paralympic games for Castorena.
He was born in Guadalajara in 1978 without a left arm and with underdeveloped legs into the kind of environment where those things can destroy a life. Without a mother, and with a father who didn’t want anything to do with a son with a physical disability, Castorena bounced around between relatives, from Guadalajara to Mexico City and back again.
Maybe, though, it was better in the long run that most of his family left him out of their circle. He reflected, “I was growing up in a family with a lot of problems. Drug addiction … for me it was very sad to see my family being destroyed.”
Castorena managed to stay out of that, wanting to prove something different to his family. From this desire sprung his attraction to sports—at first basketball, then diving with some friends, which soon turned him toward swimming.
At 22, he made it to his first Paralympics in Sydney, where he won the gold medal in the 50-meter breaststroke competition, category SB2. (The two indicates the severity of the physical disability, 1 being the highest and 10 the lowest). “It was incredible,” he said, “because I never imagined I would go so far and represent my country in the Olympic games.”
But it wasn’t a fluke. Castorena would go on representing Mexico, winning medals and breaking records, in two more Paralympics, three Parapan American Games, and other world-class competitions, although he said that for him, “The Olympics are a little more special, because you compete against all the best in the world.”Castorena has come a long way since he began swimming at 16, and through it all, the Jalisco Youth Sports Commission (CODE or Consejo Estatal para el Fomento Deportivo y el Apoyo a la Juventud), has been his second home.
Along the way, he experienced temptations, living with a family of drug addicts. Then, there was the isolation: “There were times I wanted to die because I suffered a lot,” he said. “I didn’t have the care of my parents when I was a child. I didn’t have the care of my family. Sometimes they were scornful. Sometimes there was a lot of discrimination. I was sad because of all of that, but I’m very proud because no one has come the way I’ve come. No one helped me survive. I begged for money in the street, I sold gum to survive, to eat, to buy clothes and the things that I needed.”
And now, Castorena has his own family—a wife and six children, aged 2 to 8, for whom he strives to provide what his own family did not for him. While none of them are swimmers yet, he recounted how each of them took to the water, floating naturally the first time they were introduced to a pool. While that makes him proud, Castorena has his eye fixed on practical parenting goals, “I have six beautiful children. I want to give the best to them. I don’t want them to suffer like I suffered. I want them to get an education and good studies to be something in this life.”
Castorena is proud of his country, and proud to represent Mexico. He also loves Guadalajara, but feels that Mexico still harbors a lot of discrimination against people with disabilities. However, he and others are working to raise the profile of adapted sports in hopes that that the new generation will see things a little differently.
Sheila Perez Cortes Hernandez, started working at the CODE center 10 years ago, long before she became Castorena’s trainer. In that time she has seen her group of visually impaired swimmers grow from just two to about ten. In all, she counts 150 to 200 swimmers of all types of disabilities in the swimming program now. She encourages everyone to spread the word to any children or teenagers who happen to have disabilities, but lamented the difficulty of capturing new recruits in a city that still at times sees disability as something to be ashamed of.
Castorena also noted the growth of the program in his time, remarking, “The sport has improved a lot…yes, there have been advances, but not like we want.” He would like to see more support given to adapted sports, to the same level of support that conventional sports enjoy.
That’s the larger goal he’s working toward now. “The important thing is to show that anyone can do it,” he said, considering this an important lesson for youth in the program, and for his own children.
His family is at the heart of everything he does these days. At the recent Parapan American Games in Guadalajara they could be seen lined up beside his wife, cheering—twelve little hands clapping for their father. Even his medals, and more practically, the associated money, are for them.
He also works as a DJ, mixing and dropping beats of all genres to earn extra cash. Though he has pulled himself seemingly through hell to reach the very pinnacle of his sport, money has been tight. If he were breaking swimming records in the conventional Olympics, it’s doubtful he would have such concerns.
He plans to compete in 50-meter breaststroke, the 50-meter crawl, and the 150 combined in the upcoming London Paralympic Games.
Castorena is building these games up to a major significance too. At 34 years old by this summer, he’s considering these to be last Paralympics. “Every Olympics is more difficult,” he confided, “but not impossible … I hope to go out with a gold medal.”
And then what? Castorena hopes to do what many successful, retired athletes do—coach. Specifically, he’s hoping for a post imparting to children—with special needs or otherwise—all that he has learned over his career. With his infinite determination, it seems doubtless that he’ll be able to extend his hard-won lessons to an upcoming generation of athletes.