By Ignacio Naya Aug 20, 2008, 11:39 GMT
Beijing - Maria Belen Dutto fulfilled on Wednesday her dream of competing at the Olympic Games. However, the Argentine could not hear the shouts of the crowd gathered at the BMX circuit, and she will not be able to hear her national anthem if she wins a medal on Thursday.
Dutto is 98 per cent deaf, but she represents Argentina alongside Maria Gabriela Diaz in one of the newcomer sports of the Beijing Olympics.
BMX is a young, spectacular cycling discipline. Protected with helmets and knee and elbow pads, eight cyclists race frantically through a dirt circuit, complete with bumps and jumps, in around 35-45 seconds.
Dutto put on a modest performance Wednesday, with a time of 40.193 seconds that left her 14th of 16 participants in the preliminary round.
On Thursday she will be in a different semifinal from Diaz. Indeed, Dutto was inspired to choose BMX after she saw Diaz compete in both women's native town, Alta Gracia, in the province of Cordoba.
Diaz, 27, the winner of three world championship titles, was fifth Wednesday with 37.590 seconds and remains Argentina's great hope for a BMX medal.
Things will be harder for Dutto. As usual, she will not be able to hear the sound that announces that the race is about to start.
Her parents heard from a doctor some 19 years ago that Maria Belen was deaf, but neither of them gave up on their child. Dutto got her primary and secondary education in regular schools, alongside children who were not hearing-impaired. Now, at 21, she is one Argentina's 137-strong team in Beijing.
It is usually her father who accompanies Dutto when she competes, but this time it is her mother who has travelled to Beijing.
'But there is so much help around that everything is easier for her,' the head of the Argentine cycling team, Gabriel Curuchet, said of conditions in Beijing.
Indeed, Dutto had no trouble surviving without the help of her father who usually gives her the signal to start at the beginning of races.
A beep usually tells riders that the barrier before their front wheel is about to drop. Since Dutto cannot hear the beep, her father taps her back to let her know, as he did to some controversy in the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro last year.
'At the Olympics no external help is allowed. But technology is more advanced. There is a traffic light signal that allows her to know what is happening,' Curuchet said. 'And she is happy with that.'
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