It’s celebration time, the announcer
has called his name and he moves to the podium under a rain of
applause. This is the fourth time it has happened within the last six
World Trail Orienteering Championships, and Søren knows the ritual
perfectly well. He doesn’t use much effort to get there. The
distance is short and the electric wheelchair has no difficulty
progressing over the grass. In the middle of the crowd, eyes wide
open, Rikke follows him closely, living the moment with particular
emotion. And when Søren raises his arms in triumph, medal on his
chest and diploma and a beautiful bouquet of flowers on his knees,
his personal assistant cannot help but feel an enormous pride in the
achievement.
Rather than tell a story of a
successful ‘team’, the next lines are above all a homage. A
heartfelt tribute to all Personal Assistants of the Paralympic
athletes in Trail Orienteering, to all those men and women who with
their care, energy and great sense of mission replace the athlete in
what they aren’t able to do. This story is about Rikke and Søren,
but it’s also about Beata and Ágata, Marijeta and Mauro, Josip and
Marina, Susana and Ana Paula...
Once upon a time...
For Søren Saxtorph, a Dane who became
quadriplegic and found in Trail Orienteering a good complement to his
rehabilitation process, not everything was roses during the 2015
World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC). In the very peculiar
forest of Sesvete, turned into a swamp due to the deluge the night
before the first day of competition, the athlete and his wheelchair
would have been unable to progress without assistance, sinking
inexorably into a sea of mud. But even when progression conditions
are ideal, someone has to replace Søren in the seemingly simple task
of punching the control card. It’s here that Rikke comes into our
story.
Rikke Søndergaard Nielsen was born in
1991 in Aarhus, Denmark. As well as Theatre Studies last year and
Physics, her fi eld of study currently, Rikke also teaches
Mathematics and Physics. But she’s also one of the five assistants
to Søren Saxtorph, an elite competitor in the world of Trail
Orienteering, an athlete who, in the Paralympic class, was silver
medallist in 2011 (Savoie, France) and also counts three bronze
medals in his collection (Norway 2010, Finland 2013 and Croatia
2015). Rikke knows that she has to be Søren’s hands and legs, his
support in the ups and downs. But she also understands that he’s an
autonomous person with the capacity to make his own decisions and she
just needs to assist him in achieving his goals.
Rikke was contracted by Søren as a
Personal Assistant in January 2014, and she quickly realised that
Trail Orienteering played a very special role in Søren’s life. So
it became common-place to see her every Monday night at the local
Orienteering club, along with some of his other assistants – and
Søren, naturally. And when, that summer, she got the chance to go
with him to Sweden, Rikke could see in all its fullness the dimension
of an event like O-Ringen and the peculiarities of this special
discipline that is Trail Orienteering. From that moment, “every
time there is an opportunity for me to participate, Søren makes sure
that I do so”, says Rikke, adding that “he’s a focused and
great teacher. I’m not the best with the compass, yet (laughs), but
it’s fun to experience what Trail Orienteering is about.” Step by
step, Rikke grasped TrailO’s philosophy: “The thing that
separates Trail Orienteering from most other sports is that it
gathers people, independently of gender, age or physical condition. I
think that is one of the best qualities of this sport”, she
explains.
Next big step: Croatia
The summer had gone and the autumn
brought a question with it. “Would you like to be my Personal
Assistant in Croatia, during WTOC 2015?”, Søren asked. Rikke
didn’t think twice. Together with Søren, she then had the time to
learn some of the most important things that a Personal Assistant is
supposed to do, like having respect for the silence, staying close to
the competitor, leaving the mobile phone at home... And “holding
the control card and stuff”, she adds. Another bit of what she
calls her ‘primary preparation’ is “making a BIG lunchbox”.
“It’s amazing how much I can eat during a Trail Orienteering
day”, she remarks.
In a competition like this, the life
and time of a Personal Assistant is anything but easy. Rikke
explains: “Most days during the Championships I woke up at 6.00
a.m., ready for a long and adventurous journey. There aren’t many
relaxing moments during the day, but there’s a lot of new
experiences and fun.” Rikke appears not to get anxious when Søren
is hesitating out on the course or taking too long to decide.
According to her, “he is the competitor and I just do my best to
help him, but it’s his race and his time limit. If we are pressured
by the clock, I do all I can to push him as fast as possible. It’s
better than fitness training!” And when the time to validate
Søren’s answers on the control card arrives, the immediate second
after knowing his decision, Rikke holds the punch over the card
before actually punching: “That way, Søren has time to shout NO,
not that one!”, she says with a good laugh.
The ‘Mud Day’
Rikke will remember the first day of
competition for a long time. The heavy rain that fell throughout the
night turned the trails of Sesvete forest into a muddy sea.
Organizers, marshals, competitors and of course personal assistants,
faced a terrible challenge. Rikke talks about that particular
odyssey: “Oh yes… that first day. Before I left for Croatia, I
thought it would always be 30 degrees and sunny. But Søren texted me
to bring my rain jacket and rubber boots, so I was a little shocked –
what had I signed up for?… Luckily I brought them, and I used them
on the first day. Let’s call it the Mud Day. Søren was in his 120
kg heavy electric wheelchair, and the mud was about 30 cm deep
everywhere. We got an extra ‘pusher’ named Robert. He helped me a
lot pushing Søren around and also keeping the wheels free of mud
with a stick. We could only smile about the situation, seeing it as a
demanding experience. Of course Søren and the other competitors had
a hard time in those conditions, trying to focus on the map and the
terrain whilst being very limited in their ability to move around. At
one difficult spot we were four people pushing Søren. I think
everyone did a great job that day, making the impossible situation
possible. And I will never forget washing Søren’s chair after the
race – the mud at least was kept out of the chair.”
“I have a great teacher!”
For Rikke, the Croatian experience was
fantastic and she enjoyed “the atmosphere and how people related to
each other, regardless of their differences and their language. I had
never been to Croatia and never been at a World Championships, so the
experience had great personal value too. I met a lot of nice people
there as well”, she adds. About WTOC 2016 in Sweden, she has no
doubts: “If I have the opportunity again, I would love to come.”
Rikke also got to know better the great
athlete that Søren is: “He’s a very thorough person, both in
Orienteering and in other aspects of his personal life. He has hard
times making mistakes and yet correcting them, which makes him a
great competitor. He wants to do well and prepares a lot to achieve
his goals.” The bronze medal in the World Championships is a reward
for a lot of hard labour, but Rikke refuses to accept that a portion
– even a tiny one – belongs to her: “Zero. Søren’s medal is
his only. This sport is about reading maps and terrain, and all I did
was push him from one place to another. When we have a medal for the
best ‘pusher’, I will do my best to reach the podium”, she
says. About herself being on the podium in the Open Class after a
successful campaign in some coming year, Rikke doesn’t reject the
possibility: “Oh… the competition standard in Denmark is getting
higher and higher and I still have a lot to learn. But, yes, I have a
great teacher!”
[Text and photo: Joaquim Margarido. See
the original article on Orienteering World's last issue at
http://orienteering.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/iof_orienteering_world_w3.pdf,
on pages 30 and 31. Published with permission from the
International Orienteering Federation]
