“My time at school was not easy, and my childhood was not pleasant either, due to the multiple physical problems I suffered. But perhaps that’s why when I left school, I would get in the pool and feel liberated and happy,” David Meca
The smell of coffee, the clatter of plates and cups. Toast, orange juice, and some papers on the table. The recorder is ready. Outside, the Madrid cold, tobacco smoke, and a newspaper open to the sports section. I see him cross the street. Punctual, he doesn’t take long to spot me. The cafeteria is small, family-run, and welcoming. It’s exactly 10 o’clock. We greet each other with a strong handshake. I am facing David Meca, 28 times world swimming champion. We order coffee. Grupo VS has requested an interview because we know he is a fighter and represents values that we have always defended. He has recently embarked with us on an educational project. This project is called dide, an online platform designed for families and schools, with the support of professional educational counselors, to prevent, detect early, and manage a total of up to 35 learning difficulties and development issues in children and young people from 2 to 18 years of age. With this educational tool, parents and teachers can also have access to guidelines for action and orientation tailored to the reality of each child. David Meca has come to talk about the challenges he has had to face throughout his life. Part of those challenges explain why he decided to support a project like díde. The following are just fragments from the original interview:
In what environment have you encountered more obstacles or interference: in the open sea or on land?
Although it may seem paradoxical, I have encountered more sharks out of the water than in it. “Tie sharks,” I call them, who have tried to attack me on more than one occasion and from whom I have had to escape using my best technique. It is true that they exist in the water and are much scarier, but I have not had them as close as on dry land.
What is the biggest challenge you have had to face in life?
I have faced many challenges throughout my life. In sports, I would highlight a January 5th, the “Peninsula-Balearic Islands” swim, where I was swimming for 27 hours and 50 minutes; or crossing the Strait, three times in a row. But in life, I have also had to challenge myself. Overcoming various physical problems that made my childhood difficult and forced me to swim to improve my health. Therefore, my biggest challenge was my childhood.
How do you remember your time at school?
My time at school was not easy, and my childhood was not pleasant either, due to the multiple physical problems I suffered. But perhaps that’s why when I left school, I would get in the pool and feel liberated and happy. Like a fish in water, I was one of the group, although sometimes I had to hear my classmates being told about the Olympics while my legs were tied to correct my technique.
What kind of difficulties did you encounter there? Did you manage to overcome them?
Because of my equipment, I had to endure comments, murmurs, and sometimes laughter. Sometimes they could be very cruel. Also, seeing that my classmates could play soccer and I couldn’t, made me feel a little displaced from the rest. I wore orthopedic shoes, irons on my legs, suffered from asthma,… Every time I entered the pool and had to shed everything that kept me standing, I felt many eyes watching me. However, through perseverance or character, I managed to overcome it. I needed effort, passion, confidence in myself,… I tried to be a strong person, and the pool and my family, my best support, helped me achieve it.
How important is it, first, to detect possible difficulties in children early, and second, to ensure that these same children with difficulties receive support from their environment?
Logically, 40 years ago the situation was very different, and there were not the means to solve it that there are now. But, indeed, it is necessary, first, as you say, to detect in time if any boy or girl has any difficulty—I am referring to difficulties at school, in life,…—, and second, to help them so that they can continue to progress. It is essential. Thank God, in my case I was able to redirect my problems and weaknesses and turn them into strengths in the water. Unfortunately, sometimes in life there are people who manage to bring others down and not continue swimming. And you have to do it. That is why it is so important for society that projects like díde arise.
Why did you decide to support a project like dide?
Because it is the solution to the problems that can sink the childhood of many children who suffer at school and who could be helped to contribute to their smile, their education, and their personal growth.
What can we say to people who, in the middle of the ocean of life, have no strength left to continue?
That life is not easy. That, sometimes, adversities come when you least expect it and you have to keep swimming to reach the shore. Also, we often overlook it, but we are much stronger than we think. Surround yourself with the people who inspire you, trust yourself, and you will get ahead.
What do you rely on to achieve your goals?
On work, daily dedication, and enthusiasm. I try to be excited about every challenge or project that I start in life, and that is how I believe you should always jump into the pool.
What strokes do you recommend giving to swim towards the shore of success?
Strokes of passion. Because for anything you do in life, if you finally want to reach the shore of success, you have to do it with passion. There is nothing harder and more difficult to achieve than going to work without enthusiasm for what you do.
Outside, Madrid is more alive than ever. Car horns, coats, rushing, red traffic lights, green traffic lights, streams of people crossing the streets, dodging each other, dodging cars,… If I have to take something away from this dialogue with David Meca, I’ll take away one phrase: “Life is not easy.” Not easy at all.
When you have learning difficulties or developmental issues that are not detected in time, stones and more stones are added to your path. There are many children whose environment puts stones in their way for the mere fact of not knowing their true circumstances: dyslexia, dyscalculia, a situation of bullying, poor study habits, a poor diet, vision problems or hearing problems,… circumstances that, if known in time, would also receive timely attention—timely support—from the environment, preventing other multiple difficulties. It is true that life is about encountering obstacles and learning to overcome them, but at the same time, regardless of the multiple paths to which life leads you, it is important that we can all start from the same opportunities. With projects like dide, we take one more step not only towards that equality, but also towards a well-desired inclusive education.
We finish our cups and say goodbye, again, with a strong handshake, knowing that this will only be the first of many other meetings.
(Interview January 2017)
